


Cappello di Paglia

by psychgrimmlover



Category: One Piece
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Genderbent, Alternate Universe - Mob, Drama, Gen, Genderbending, Humor, I like descriptions, Minor Violence, Multi, OOC, Organized Crime, Pirates are Mafia, a little bit of romance, cursing, girls are boys and boys are girls, mafia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-19 08:12:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4739171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychgrimmlover/pseuds/psychgrimmlover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When one of the Four Capo di Capi Re start encroaching on their territories, the Straw Hat Family and the Heart Family form an alliance to take the Capo di Capi Re out...permanently. But will this alliance be successful, or will it lead to their demise? AU. Mob-Style. Genderbent. More info inside!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so yes, I did have a story posted earlier by this name, but I had new ideas and such so I deleted it so I could now post this one, the main two difference being that it will only contain the Straw Hats and Hearts, and I'm taking a shot at writing this genderbent. I'd like to repeat: THIS IS A GENDERBENT VERSION, which means males are females and females are males. IDK, I was just doin' it for fun and then I decided that the genderbent version I messed around with was a lot better than the other and so this happened. As for their descriptions, I'm going off things I found on the internet and such. It's basically the same as the other one with some things switched around. Anywho, this story is about the characters as mobsters! We're in the One Piece World (meaning Devil Fruits, Haki, and the like exist) but instead of pirates, we have the Mafia! Also, there's still the World Government, but instead of the Marines, its the FBI. Oh, I'm mostly going off of post-timeskip stuff (except for a few) and there will be some notable changes to some characters. An example is that Chopper (gonna be spelled Choppa for the female version) is going to be a human who ate the Reindeer-Reindeer Fruit; oh, and Brook (spelled Brooke for the female version) is still a human, not a skeleton. Also, IDK yet if I'm gonna have any romantic pairings (I'm kinda leaning toward LawLu, but we'll see). I'm playing it by ear. Just read the story and I promise you'll understand. I hope. XD This chapter is basically just a "meet the characters" kind of deal.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of the characters mentioned.
> 
> This is AU. Basically, all that remains are their names, faces, and a few personality traits, but other than that, the characters in this story are completely OOC.

For years, things in the Six Districts—East Blue, North Blue, West Blue, South Blue, Paradise, and New World—were relatively peaceful, everyone coexisting peacefully with the individual Mob Families that watched over the territories that resided in the separate Districts. Yes, the Mafia. Gangs, of course, had risen up in the smaller cities and towns across the Districts, but everyone knew who really ran everything that went on behind the scenes, who the ones that pulled the strings were, and that was the Mob Families.  

It’d been twenty-two years since the Capo di tutti Capi (Boss of All Bosses), Gol D. Roger, died by execution. Any protégés he left behind had long since fled, either going into retirement or hiding, or establishing their own power by claiming territories of their own. These protégés had all since aged, and one in particular was now a Capo di Capi Re (King Boss of Bosses, a respected senior), but that’s another story for another time.

There were the Four Capo di Capi Re, who mainly ruled over the New World District (the largest and most influential one), that made up the “older generation” of the Mafia; these were the Families who’d either been around since Roger’s time or started right after Roger’s death. Some of the Capo di Capi Re didn’t really care about becoming the Capo di tutti Capi, more content with running their territories and doing their own things, while the others wanted nothing more than to become Capo di tutti Capi. This was where the problems began.

The gap Roger’s death created left space for the smaller, starter Families to rise up, and that was just what they’d been doing.

Besides the Four Capo di Capi Re, there was another group that stood at the top: the Nine Supernovas. They consisted of the newer generation of the Mafia, the upstarts who had quickly made a name for themselves. These Family names were known all over—whispered in fear, admiration, or disgust, but always with respect.

But even among the Supernovas, there stood three Families that had gained even more recognition and infamy, known among the other Families and the FBI as the “Three Terrors”. These three Families were the Heart Family, the Kid Family, and the Straw Hat Family. _This_ was where our story began, when two of those Families decided…to form an alliance.

* * *

“LUUUUUFFFFFYYYY!!!!!” a highly panicked voice echoed through the Mansion as the front door was slammed shut and two sets of feet came running to the kitchen.

Sitting at the kitchen table, scarfing down plates of food as fast as they were placed in front of her, sat 25-year-old Monkey D. Luffyko—Luffy for short—just a squirt; some say a girl in the world of men. But this “girl” had dreams, and the guts and power to back them up. When she said she wanted to be the Capo di tutti Capi, she meant it, and everyone who heard her knew it. Though she’s so young, she was still the Boss of her own Family, known to everyone as the Straw Hat Family, and her territories mainly consisted of the East Blue District, as well as some from the Paradise District.

She had waist-length, messy raven black hair with choppy bangs and two chest-length strands framing her face, wide, round chocolate brown eyes, light tan skin, and a slender, well-endowed, hourglass figure; she also had two visible scars: a horizontal scar with two stitches underneath her left eye and a large X-shaped burn scar over her chest. Hanging from a chin-string over her shoulder blades, like always, was her straw hat with a red ribbon circling it; she went nowhere without this hat, given to her by a very special person, which was how she got her epithet: “Straw Hat”.

When Luffy was six, she accidentally ate the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit and gained the properties of highly-stretchable rubber. Combined with the elasticity of her body, she used this ability to accelerate parts or the whole of her body, as if shot by a slingshot, to deliver punches, kicks, head butts, body checks, or simply for propulsion. In addition to her Devil Fruit powers, she’s a master in Karate, Taekwondo and Kung-Fu, though had proven time and time again to be a highly adaptive combatant, _extremely_ agile and acrobatic, and excelled in all three variations of Haki (Observation, Armament, Conqueror’s). Taking all of this into account, as well as her familial relations, the FBI and World Government had given her a bounty of 580,000,000 berries.

“What the hell is that moron yelling about now?” came a slightly irritated voice from Luffy’s right.

That would be 27-year-old Roronoa Zoroko, more commonly called Zoro—the Underboss of the Straw Hats and Luffy’s best (and closest) friend. She had waist-length, straight, slicked-back light leaf green hair with two chest-length strands framing her face and a few tiny strands over her forehead, hunter green eyes—with a vertical scar running down her left one that kept it permanently shut, golden tan skin, a slender, well-endowed, hourglass figure, a massive stitched scar stretching from her left shoulder to right hip, and stitched scars circling either ankle; dangling from her left ear were three identical gold teardrop earrings and bundled over her right hip were her three katanas—a white one (Wadō Ichimonji), a dark reddish-brown one (Kitetsu III), and a black one (Shusui). She never went anywhere without her katanas, as they were a part of who she was, which was, mostly, how she earned her epithet, “Santoryu Demoness”.

Zoro’s an extremely powerful master swordswoman, excelling in Kenjutsu, Kendo and Shinkendo, and was able to use one, two and three swords in varying attack styles, going from melee-type all the way to artillery. Although she’s most comfortable with her own personally-developed style—Santoryu (three-sword style)—her skills with one or two swords were still quite exceptional; she’s also quite proficient in using Armament and Observation Haki, very adept in acrobatics, and could fight hand-to-hand if need-be. Her skills and demeanor were such that she had, on multiple occasions, been called nothing less than a living, breathing demon in human form. Her abilities, disposition, and ranking in the Family had given her a bounty of 525,000,000 berries.

“Mmmph! Whaf iz—” Luffy was cut off with a kick to the back of her head.

“Swallow before trying to speak, idiot,” came the lazy drawl of the chef trying to keep Luffy fed.

As well as being Luffy’s personal chef, 27-year-old Cuire Sanjiko, usually just called Sanji, was also one of Luffy’s Consiglieres (Chief Advisor); she used her wit and experience to help Luffy manage a lot of her business dealings and transactions. She had hip-length, straight golden-yellow blonde hair with long, side-swept bangs kept brushed over the right side of her face, light tan skin, Carolina-blue eyes, and a slender, well-endowed, hourglass figure with long, toned legs; her eyebrows both formed a spiral to the right and you could always find a cigarette hanging out of her mouth.

Sanji’s main power lied in her legs and feet, both being extremely deadly, able to level buildings, break apart stone, and effortlessly defeat people much larger than herself. She’s known as “Black Leg” because of this particular fighting style, a combination of Capoeira, Chángquán, Taekwondo, Muay Thai and Savate; she could also use Armament and Observation Haki quite well and was very limber and acrobatic. She was, first and foremost, a high-class chef, having learned most of her skills from her adoptive father—who happened to be a famous master chef himself; Zeff was also the one who inspired Sanji's fighting style. Her particular bounty was at 510,000,000 berries.

Swallowing down what was left in her mouth, Luffy tried speaking again. “What’s wrong?”

“Seems like Usopp’s freaking out again.” Zoro commented, going back to cleaning Wadō Ichimonji.

“What happened this time?” Luffy wondered before going back to her meal—nothing could ever keep Luffy from food for too long.

 _“ **LUUUUUFFFFFYYYY!!!!!** ”_ came the yell again, this time loud enough to get the attention of the whole Mansion.

A slam of a door opening was heard before angry footsteps made their way into the kitchen; in the entryway now stood a very pissed-off orange-haired man, looking like he was about to murder someone.

“What the _hell_ is Usopp yelling about!?” the man exclaimed angrily. “I’m trying to finish my map of Little Garden!”

“Ah, Nami- _san_ , you’re so handsome when you’re angry!” Sanji sung out while spinning over to the man, presenting him with the parfait she was just about to bring him.

Sighing but giving the blonde a smile, Nami sat down in the seat to the left of Luffy, right across from Zoro. “Thanks, Sanji. I guess I could use a break.”

The irate man was 26-year-old Mandarina Namizou, though called Nami, Luffy’s first Consigliere and her closest friend after Zoro; he advised Luffy in all major decisions and worked to keep everything in line, running smoothly since Luffy usually didn’t concern herself with the “important” things like that. He had chest-length, wavy tangerine orange hair, worn back in a braided ponytail, with choppy fringe and two shoulder-length strands framing his face, burgundy-brownish eyes, fair skin, and a lean, muscular body; around his left wrist was a gold bracelet and orange wristwatch and covering his left deltoid was an indigo tattoo that represented a tangerine and pinwheel.

Nami was a genius—particularly with tactics, math, meteorology and directions—but if you asked him where his specialty _truly_ lied, he’d tell you it was with money. His immense love of berries was why he also managed all the Family’s finances, which was probably the whole reason the Straw Hats were the richest of the Supernova Families. Another thing he specialized in was cartography—he loved to make and draw maps, and was extremely good at it, so he ended up making the maps of all their territories. But Nami wasn’t only looks and brains, he’s also not too bad in a fight. His particular skills lied in Bōjutsu and the Art of Weather, so his weapon of choice was his specially-made Sorcery Clima-Tact—a tri-sectional, thin, cyan blue steel bō-staff that could create and control elements of the weather at will. His past experiences had also led him to be an excellent thief and pickpocket, which gained him the epithet, “Neko Burglar”. His bounty was 410,000,000 berries.

“LUUUUUU—” the loud shout suddenly cut off when stumbling noises sounded, followed by a loud _CRASH_ and a startled scream.

“Ahhh! Usopp’s hurt!” came a slightly high-pitched voice. “Doctor! We need a doctor!!!”

“You’re the doctor, Choppa!” Nami yelled in the direction of the formal living room. “Stop running around and pull Usopp out of the damn wall!”

Zoro let out a sigh before sheathing Wadō. “Franki’s not gonna be happy.”

Suddenly, one of the back doors—located in the solarium just off the kitchen—was heard slamming open before a loud shout came through. _“SUPAH!”_ Appearing in the entrance of the kitchen, 36-year-old Cutty Flammy, more commonly called Franki under extreme insistence of the woman, struck her usual pose of slamming her forearms together above her head, leaning slightly to the left.

“Hey, Franki.” Nami just said tiredly, finishing up his parfait. “One the walls needs fixing again.”

 _“Again?!”_ Franki shouted, eyebrows high as she dropped her arms. “What happened?”

Franki was one of Luffy’s Caporegimes—in particular, the Caporegime of Collection and Enforcement. She had scapula-length cyan blue hair, sticking up like a large pompadour at the front and the back spiked out at the ends, dark gray eyes, light tan skin, a three-pronged chin, a metal-plated nose, and a slender, well-endowed, hourglass figure; on either forearm was a blue star tattoo and hanging around her neck was a golden chain-link necklace. When she was younger, she was severely injured in an accident that killed her parents, and, to survive, she rebuilt parts of her body using pieces of scrap metal, turning herself into a cola-powered cyborg with superhuman strength and a whole bunch of other interesting features. Thanks to her very unique body, she’d earned the epithet, “Cyborg” Franki. Her fighting style mostly revolved around Boxing, but she didn’t hesitate to fight dirty if needed. Franki also happened to be a mechanical, carpentry and inventing prodigy as well as a genius builder and contractor, having designed and built the Straw Hats’ Mansion, their home base, and a lot of the weapons they employ, as well as maintaining their cars. She’s currently the leader of the “Franki Gang”—a loud, brash group of ragtags and thieves who’re most regularly found in the center of Straw Hat threats and skirmishes. Her bounty was at 444,000,000 berries.

“Usopp ran into the house, shouting about something, then crashed into one of the walls.” Sanji recapped before taking a drag from her cigarette.

“Again?” Franki said once more, a little calmer. “That’s the fourth time this _week_ she’s crashed into one.”

 _“Hey!”_ came an affronted voice from the kitchen’s entrance. “I have not crashed into the wall four times!”

The woman who’d been screaming like a madwoman was the 25-year-old Tirador Usoppnette—a.k.a. Usopp—Luffy’s Caporegime of Information and Research who also acted as sniper when need-be. She had waist-length, ringleted black hair with two chest-length strands framing her face, dark brown eyes, a cinnamon complexion, a slender, curvaceous figure, thick lips, and a really abnormally long nose; hanging around her neck were a pair of orange red-tinted sniper goggles and placed over her ears were orange headphones.

Usopp had exceptional marksmanship abilities with any weapon she picked up, as well as having impeccable eyesight—both of which she inherited from her father, Yasopp (Sniper of the Red-Hair Family)—and was now learning how to use Observation Haki; with her virtually unmatched sniper skills, she’d been given the epithet “Sniper Queen”. Her abilities relied primarily on her resourcefulness, analytical mind, and understanding towards engineering; she’s also a genius inventor and jack-of-all-trades craftswoman, as well as a skilled artist and forger, and not too bad at chemistry. Her particular gang, “Usopp’s Pirates”, were exceptionally talented at collecting information on anything and everything in all the Six Districts as well as helping with any covert research that needed to be done. She had a bounty of 405,000,000 berries.

Franki, who had gone to the fridge to grab some colas, paused and turned to give Usopp a dubious look. “I’ve had to fix the wall every single time you’ve done it!” She paused to grab her colas from the fridge before turning back. “I think I’d know how many times it’s happened.”

Looking cowed, Usopp slunk over to a seat at the table and laid her head down, sulking. Choppa, who’d been hiding behind the wall until now, cautiously made her way into the kitchen, nervously sitting next to her friend.

“Everything’s alright, Choppa.” Zoro assured the youngest Straw Hat member. “No one’s mad. Just…annoyed.”

The youngest was 23-year-old Tony Tony Choppa, the personal doctor and surgeon of the Straw Hats—something that was _definitely_ needed in this Family. She had shoulder-length, wavy golden brunette hair with messy bangs, large charcoal gray eyes, light tan skin, and a petite, slender body; underneath her left ear was a jagged scar and on her head was a sky blue bubble cap that had a ring of dots around a light pink circle with a white cherry blossom print in the center, a thick light pink bill, and a pair of buckles hanging down.

Choppa possessed a vast knowledge of both medicine and medical drugs as well as the preparations of most remedies and ointments, and was capable of administering surgery, blood transfusions, resuscitation, and surgeries in the field. Her given epithet was “Sakura”, mostly stemming from her love of cherry blossoms that started with her adoptive father. When Choppa was really young, she mistakenly ate the Reindeer-Reindeer Fruit, which gave her the ability to transform into a reindeer hybrid and full reindeer at will; she actually taught herself to turn into nine different forms, versus the normal three, and with these forms came different fighting prowesses. Since she’s only regarded as the doctor, though, her bounty was set merely at 150,000,000 berries.

“Oh yeah.” Nami said, remembering why he’s in the kitchen in the first place. Glaring at Usopp, he whacked her over the head, hard.

“Ooowww!!!” Usopp yelped, immediately covering the injured area before turning to Nami. “What the hell?”

 _SMACK._ Usopp was kicked to the ground with a seething Sanji standing over her.

“Don’t you dare talk to Nami- _san_ that way, asshole!” Sanji said around the cigarette clenched between her teeth.

Smirking, Zoro nonchalantly questioned, “Who the fuck cares?”

_That did it._

Sanji immediately turned her attention to Zoro with a furious expression on her face. “What was that, moss head?!”

“I don’t think I need to repeat myself, dartboard.” Zoro taunted back, hand already resting on Shusui’s hilt.

 _CLANK. SMASH. CRASH_. Just another morning in the Straw Hat Family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, was that any good? I like where I'm going, but I'd love to have y'alls opinion! Any suggestions or things you'd like me to add; I'll listen to anything you have to say. Until next time...
> 
> Zoro's Weapons (for those who'd like to know) -  
> \- Wadō Ichimonji (Straight Road of the Harmony): a suguha (straight), slender, single-edged, 29” black blade with a silver edge; a pure white tsuka-ito (hilt-wrapping) with gray samegawa (ray skin wrap), a gold elliptical tsuba (hand-guard), and a gold kashira (pommel) (with a small U-shape in the center of both sides); a painted white saya (scabbard) with a gold kojiri (end cap)  
> \- Kitetsu III (Third Generation Demon-Splitter): Kitetsu III (Third Generation Demon-Splitter): a moderately curved, slender, single-edged, 29” black blade with a silver edge and a blue flame-patterned hamon (hardening line); the dark brown hilt is wrapped in reddish-brown leather rope with a gold clasp around its middle, a gold tsuba (hand-guard) shaped like a rounded cross pattée, and a gold kashira (pommel); a deep red saya (scabbard) that has two gold clasps in short succession around its middle and a gold kojiri (end cap)  
> \- Shusui (Clear Autumn Water): a moderately curved, slender, single-edged, Kanemoto-style, 29” black blade with a lighter black edge and a distinct dark red reverse-wave hamon (hardening line); a black silk tsuka-ito (hilt-wrapping) with pale purple samegawa (ray skin wrap), a gold tsuba (hand-guard) that has flower-like edges, and a gold kashira (pommel); a black saya (scabbard) with dark red circles split in even thirds from the opening to the bottom, a sage green (with white dots) sageo (cord) wrapped around the upper-part, and a gold kojiri (end cap)  
> Usopp's Weapons -  
> \- Ginga & Pachinko: twin Beretta 92FS INOX (for close- and mid-range attacks); a double/single-action semi-automatic pistol that employs an open-slide, short-recoil delayed locking-block system; slide, barrel and internal parts are all stainless steel, while the alloy frame is anodized to match the color and finish of the other components; black stippled-textured soft rubber grip absorbs the recoil while affording a firm and positive grip  
> \- Kuro Kabuto: a MD 50 Sniper Rifle (for off-hand long-range attacks); a gas-operated, semi-automatic weapon of bullpup layout; receiver is made of extruded aluminum alloy; three-position gas regulator and annular short stroke gas piston, located around the barrel; rotary bolt has a triangular head with three frontal locking lugs; bolt carrier is unusually short and light, which leads to a relatively short receiver and decreased felt recoil; barrel is equipped with effective muzzle brake; a long integral Picatinny rail above the receiver, which can host variety of sights (daytime telescopic; night vision; IR; back-up iron sights)  
> \- Kabuto: a Serbu BFG-50A Sniper Rifle (for long-range sniper attacks); a gas-operated, semi-automatic weapon; barrel locking is achieved by rotary bolt with a triangular bolt head (three symmetrical locking lugs); direct gas impingement action (powder gases are fed from the middle of the bore into the gas block, and then into the gas tube that runs back into the receiver; the rear of the gas tube connects to the bolt carrier, which has a dedicated gas expansion chamber); stationary barrel and relatively lightweight bolt group; equipped with a muzzle brake and integral hydraulic buffer which slows down recoil of the bolt group; detachable Picatinny rail with an additional short length attached below the front of the hand-guard to accept a detachable folding bipod  
> \- Ammo: Pop Greens; a special kind a bullet only she uses (same properties as the ones in the show)  
> Franki's Cyborg Body -  
> \- entire body is heavily armored and insensitive to most attacks, due to a metal endoskeleton; body is equipped with a wide variety of weapons, including rockets, left arm is a gun, an extendable right arm, the ability to breathe powerful flames as well as being able to release powerful blasts of air from multiple parts of her body; can use up large amounts of cola in an instant to launch powerful bursts of air from her arms, utilizing these blasts for techniques such as the devastating “Coup de Vent”; stomach contains a refrigerator compartment that can hold up to three bottles of cola to fuel her and her attacks


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! Next chapter and I promise things are gonna start picking up! I'd like to, again, apologize for the long description-thing I have going on, but that's just how I operate, and it'll probably happen again in the future when I introduce other characters into the story. Personally, I like reading stuff like that so I can build a picture of that character in my head. And yes, I know that, since this is a fanfic on an Anime, ppl already know what the characters look like, but I still like doing it. If you don't like it, don't read it. Simple as that. Also, I hope you're enjoying this genderbent "world" I'm building. I like it.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of One Piece's characters mentioned in this fic.
> 
> This is AU. Basically, all that remains are their names, faces, and a few personality traits, but other than that, the characters in this story are completely OOC.

After Luffy finally finished her breakfast—well, what was left in front of her since Sanji’s too busy fighting to cook her anything else—she occupied herself with watching her Family interact with each other, smile wide, before remembering Usopp’s earlier action of running into the Mansion, screaming at the top of her lungs. Pushing the plates away from herself, she suddenly stood and slammed both her fists down onto the table’s hard surface with a loud _BANG_ , stopping everybody in their tracks. For her to do something like that was out of character.

“Luffy?” Zoro questioned, a tad wary. It’d been awhile since Luffy did something so…assertive like that, and the last time was not a time she wanted to remember.

Once she was sure she had everyone’s attention, Luffy calmly sat back down before her usual smile spread across her face. “So, Usopp, what’s up?”

Usopp stared at Luffy a second or two longer than necessary before remembering what had her in such a tizzy before. “Oh! Right, right. Sorry.” Reaching into one of her pockets, she pulled out an envelope as the rest of the Straw Hats each slowly took a seat around the table. Slapping the envelope on the table, she said, “Choppa and I were coming back from Party’s when two guys approached us at the front gate and—”

“Who were they?” Nami interrupted.

Usopp rolled her eyes. “I was just about to say. Be patient… _please_.” She hastily added when Sanji raised a threatening heeled foot. “They said they were from another Family.” Usopp paused before saying, “The Heart Family.”

No one said anything for at least a minute before everyone started talking at once.

“The Heart Family…”

“What the hell do they want…”

“That’s not very supah…”

“They came _here_ …”

Luffy said nothing and simply reached forward to grab the envelope. If they wanted to find out _what_ the Heart Family wanted, the easiest way was to read what’s inside, right? Sliding her finger under the flap and opening it, she reached in to pull out the paper that resided inside. Unfolding the sheet, Luffy silently read over it as her friends continued to talk around her—all except for Zoro, who’d noticed what Luffy was doing. Sure, she could shut the others up, but Luffy didn’t seemed to be bothered by the background noise, so she’s content to silently watch her Don until she's needed.

Meanwhile, Luffy’s halfway through the letter and already _really_ shocked at its contents. This couldn’t be right…Don Trafalgar wanted to _what?_

“Luffy, what’s wrong?” Nami asked, finally noticing the unusual silence and stillness from the ravenette. “What does the letter say?”

Finally finishing, Luffy looked up at her now-silent friends with an astonished look on her face. “Umm…”

“What does it say, Luffy?” Zoro asked before grumbling and simply grabbing the letter from her hands.

While Zoro quickly skimmed through the letter, Luffy finally said, “It seems the Heart Family wants to meet with us.”

“Why in the world would the Heart Family want _that?”_ Sanji asked while lighting up another cigarette.

“To discuss an alliance.” Zoro answered before Luffy could, having finished the letter.

**. . .**

_“WHAT?!”_

“An alliance? With _us?!”_ Nami exclaimed before reaching across the table to snatch the letter from Zoro. “Let me see this.” Nami quieted down as he now read it over.

“She seemed really serious about it.” Luffy added, once again rocking from side-to-side.

**. . .**

“What does that even _mean?!”_ Usopp yelled, rubbing her forehead. “I don’t understand any of this.”

“That doesn’t matter. The major question we should be asking is,” Sanji said, wiggling her cigarette back and forth in her fingers, “ _why_ would the Heart Family want to discuss an alliance?”

“It has to do with the recent attacks that’ve been going on.” Nami answered, having completed the letter.

“Attacks?” Choppa asked, resting her elbows on the table.

“OH!” Franki suddenly exclaimed, startling almost everyone around the table.

“Don’t _do_ that, Franki!” Usopp exclaimed, gripping the table in a white-knuckled grasp. “Being in this Family will kill me one of these days, I just know it.”

Franki ignored her as she focused her attention on Luffy. “I meant to tell you this when I first came in here, but then the whole fiasco with Usopp happened and it slipped my mind.”

“Tell me what, Franki?” Luffy asked, resting her chin in her palm.

Leaning back in her chair, she said, “My bros reported another attack, this time in Suiren Town.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Luckily, a few of them were in the area so they were able to drive off the small group who’d started attacking some of the businesses.” She then let out a sigh. “We averted a crisis, but this has been happening way too often in our other territories. I don’t like it.”

Luffy looked understandably distraught—she cared about her territories, unlike most Dons, and felt personally responsible for everybody that lived in them—but before she could talk, Nami butted in.

“It seems we’re not the only ones this is happening to.” Nami said, waving the letter. “I’m assuming that’s what Don Trafalgar wishes to discuss with us.” He placed the letter back down on the table.

“How do we know it’s the same people attacking both of us?” Choppa wondered aloud.

“Luffy?” The Don looked over at the blonde chef, head cocked to the side. “I think we should finish this discussion at the Thousand Sunny.” She took a drag off her cigarette before continuing. “This involves all of us and we’re two members short.”

Nodding, Luffy pushed away from the table and stood. “Good idea, Sanji.” Looking around, she added, “Everyone get ready to go. We leave in fifteen.”

“Got it,” everyone automatically said back.

* * *

The sun was just reaching its peak as Luffy—now dressed in a dark blue V-neck tee, a brown denim miniskirt, black combat boots, and her ever-present straw hat—led the rest of her Family down the busy sidewalk of Dawn City, though people stopped her every so often to pay her respect; not that she asked for it, but she knew it’d be rude to just _ignore_ the people.

Smirking at her discomfort, Zoro—wearing a black cropped leather jacket over a silver camisole, a black bandana tied around her left bicep, navy blue skinny jeans tucked into black lace-up, mid-calf boots with gunmetal hardware, and a light brown haramaki with her katanas bundled over her right hip—ruffled her on her head, over her straw hat, to which Luffy responded to by sticking her tongue out at her.

“Stop being immature, Luffy. We’re in public.” Nami chastised, pushing her shoulder lightly; he had changed into a white V-neck t-shirt trimmed in black, dark jeans, a dark pink belt, and light brown leather ankle boots.

“Ahhh!!!” Sanji spun around the orange-haired man. “Nami- _san_ is so wonderful when he’s hitting other people.” She’s still dressed in what she had on earlier: a white oxford blouse, top two buttons left undone, under a black waistcoat with lavender pinstripes, black dress pants with a double eyelet-studded dark gray belt threaded through the belt loops and silver chain hanging from her left side, and black platform pumps.

“Tone it down, love-cook. You’re drawing attention.” Zoro drawled, sending the blonde a glare.

Before Sanji could even snap back, Nami had grabbed her attention again, wanting to prevent another fight between the two. Usopp, seeing what he had done, gave him a thumbs-up; she was still wearing a lime green short-sleeved blouse left unbuttoned over a periwinkle camisole, dark pink denim short-shorts covered in dark brown polkadots, a white belt, and red Chuck Taylor All Stars.

“Choppa-sis!” Franki called, loudly, as she looked down at the younger woman. “You okay there?” She’s in a black leather jacket with blue stars over the chest and silver rivets around the cuffs left open over a white sleeveless crop top, dark red daisy dukes with gold stars on either back pocket, and black chunky ankle boots.

Choppa—in a brown bomber jacket left open over a white tee, maroon jeans, black Chuck Taylor All Stars, and her ever-present hat on her head—smiled back up at Franki. “No, I’m okay. Just thinking, is all.”

Franki patted the young doctor over her hat with a chuckle as she slipped her black triangular sunglasses back over her eyes. “That is what you do best.” Slinging an arm over her shoulders, she said, “Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing, Choppa-sis. Luffy-sis will figure everything out. You’ll see.”

Looking up at Franki, Choppa’s smile widened. “I know, you’re right. We can always trust Luffy.”

After a sedate, hour-long walk, the Family finally arrived at a dusty old antique shop, the sign **Ohara Antiques** displayed proudly above the door and on both large shop windows; the inside itself was packed full of glass cases, baskets, bins, shelves and tables holding different odds and ends along with a little reading nook nestled in the back, complete with two white couches, three small bookcases, and a coffee mini-bar. To anyone walking past, the shop looked ordinary and unassuming, a small stone in a rather large pond that was the city.

And that’s exactly how it was planned to be.

Luffy cheered the second she stepped inside the dimly lit store and immediately started looking around. “Rooobbbiiinnnn!!!! Where are you?”

“Luffy, hush!” Nami said, quickly walking over to the ravenette to quiet her as Franki locked the door behind them. “You know not to shout in here!”

“Yes, Don, please do be quiet while you’re in my store.” The group was greeted by a dark-haired man sitting behind the counter placed near the back, sipping on a mug of coffee.

34-year-old Nico Robin was as intelligent as he was captivating as he was deadly, and filled the role of Luffy’s final Consigliere; he took care of things “behind-the-scenes” for Luffy, as well as advising her about the backgrounds and roles of the people she dealt with on a daily basis. He had scapula-length, straight light black hair with two shoulder-length strands framing his face, sky blue eyes, a long, thin, defined nose, light tan skin, and a brawny, athletic body with long legs and arms; he’s wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and top few buttons left undone, black jeans, a purple belt, and black leather boots.

Robin’s a skilled archaeologist and historian who had a vast knowledge of history and cultures, as well as being a certified genius with a high aptitude in academics and research, and possessed a considerable knowledge of most of the major figures in the Six Districts. Like Luffy and Choppa, he also ate a Devil Fruit when he was younger, one called the Flower-Flower Fruit—he could spread his body parts on any surface, including his own body, other bodies, and other objects, allowing him to create copies of them. With help from his Fruit, he excelled in Judo, often incapacitating others by breaking their necks or backs. With that, along with his side job of assassin and rather colorful past, Robin had earned the epithet “Devil” with a bounty of 490,000,000 berries.

“What brings you all here?” Robin asked politely, closing the book he’d been reading. “Has something happened?”

“Is Brooke still here?” Luffy asked instead of answering.

Robin nodded, placing his coffee mug down next to his book. “She should be.”

“Good. We need to have a meeting.” Luffy stated, already moving to where the secret back door was located.

“Of course.” Robin said, grabbing the key that was always kept in his pocket.

To those passing by the shop—rushing as people in cities tended to do—they’d only see a smart, dignified man owning a respectable business and would assume that nothing was amiss. This fact was _exactly_ why Robin was the proprietor of the most successful combination underground bar, gambling house and burlesque/brothel (a speakeasy, so to speak) in the Four Blues. It’s such a well-kept secret that not even the FBI had a clue to where its location was, never suspecting it’d be located in an _antique store_ of all places.

Called the Thousand Sunny, and located in the secret, undocumented basement area of the antique store, the hidden bar was one of the Straw Hats’ biggest sources of income. Robin ran the joint well, all the employees loving the fun and interest it provided them, and he paid everyone generously, thanks to the hefty sum he received from being on the Straw Hat payroll. While running the Thousand Sunny—one of the Family’s favorite hangouts—he used the goods and supplies Luffy provided, and, in return, he helped his boss by using his excellent skills and Devil Fruit power to gather information. A lot of bigwigs from different Districts often showed up, so it was good to always have an extra ear handy.

So the group followed Robin down the stairs before going through another locked door and then being greeted by the sight of a half-full room—it was only noon, so the bar’s not really busy at this time. After giving a wave to the bartender and co-manager, Tontatta Vi, Luffy led the group to the back, closed-off room they usually used for meetings while Robin went to grab Brooke.

Settling around a large, elliptical maplewood table—with Luffy at the head, Zoro sitting to her right, Nami to her left and the others fanning out from there—they all waited until the last two members arrived to begin their discussion. Speaking quietly among themselves, everyone looked up when they finally heard the door open and Robin entered with another person right behind him.

“Yohohoho.” The person laughed, a smile on her face. “What a nice surprise. I didn’t expect to see you all here until later.”

48-year-old Debonés Brooke was an old soul who had a passion, and talent, for music—gaining her the epithet “Soul Queen”—but mainly worked as Luffy’s last Caporegime. She had scapula-length, curly, afro-like black hair topped by a small black top hat with a white ribbon circling it and yellow rose pinned to the right side—tilted at an angle and worn on a headband, dark brown eyes covered by round, tinted spectacles, an abnormally curved scar on the right side of her forehead, dark tan lips, pale skin, and a slim, model-like figure; you could sometimes mistake her for a skeleton she was so skinny. She’s currently dressed in a bright orange oxford blouse with a mandarin collar and blue ribbon held together by a large pearl around the collar, a black godet skirt with a white petticoat underneath, and black high-heeled, buckled ankle boots; hanging from her bony arm, like usual, was her lavender shikomizue, called Soul Solid.

Despite her strange appearance, Brooke’s a ladylike, mostly polite individual and ran the tough, clever, musical “Rumbar Gang”, which dealt in managing most of the alcohol, drug, and firearm pedaling in the East Blue and parts of Paradise. Like the other three, Brooke was a Devil Fruit user—she’d eaten the Soul-Soul Fruit, which allowed her to control her very soul and manipulate it any way she wished. She’s also well-versed in swordplay, her fighting style a combination of Classical Fencing and Iaidō, and, due to her musical background, Brooke often moved according to the rhythm of her music, greatly assisting her in battle. Her bounty was at 433,000,000 berries.

“Robin- _chan_!” Sanji exclaimed, hearts dancing in her eyes. “You have decided to grace our—”

“Shut up, curlybrow.” Zoro intoned lazily. “We don’t have time for your half-assed flirting.”

“What was that, cyclops?!” Sanji yelled, looking ready to jump up.

Fighting between the two of them wasn't uncommon; actually, it’d be more accurate to say it’s a daily…no, _hourly_ thing with Zoro and Sanji. No one understood _why_ , but the two of them just did _not_ get along. Honestly, people had questioned why they’re in the same Family and exactly _how_ they worked together because, somehow, the two of them, along with their Don, were the strongest fighters out of their Family, probably top out of all the Supernovas. Individually, they’re powerhouses, able to quickly and easily get through any opponent put in their way, but when they teamed up, they’re like monsters, _demons_ , superhuman almost. It’s because of this fact, that both inside the Family and by a whole bunch of different people outside of it, the three of them were collectively known as the “Monster Trio”. When you see them fight, it was almost awe-inspiring how they moved, each one working seamlessly with the others; no words usually got spoken between the three, each one somehow knowing what they had to do, and then doing it.

So, when you took that into account, people wondered how that’s even _possible_ when Zoro and Sanji fought like cats and dogs on a daily basis. No one could break up a fight between them two, no one would dare _try;_ Nami was pretty good at breaking it up when they’d been doing so for awhile—usually with a well-placed fist to their heads—but there’s only one person who’s able to stop it before it even began—the reason the both of them were in the same Family in the first place.

Luffy slammed her hand down on the table, loudly, getting the attention of the two bickering women. With one look at Luffy, they immediately settled down.

“Good, now that everyone’s here, we can get down to business.” Nami said before pulling out the letter from his pocket and passing it on to Robin.

“You two need to read this letter so we’re all on the same page.” He instructed, crossing his legs.

Grabbing the letter, Robin settled back and quickly scanned it over, eyes widening slightly the only emotion he showed. Once he finished, he handed it over to Brooke, who read it over as well.

“Yohoho.” Brooke said quietly, a little shocked, before placing the letter on the table.

Before continuing where they left off at the Mansion, Nami told Franki to repeat everything she told them earlier, wanting to make sure Robin and Brooke were caught up with everything.

“So, we’re all on the same page now?” Nami asked once Franki was through and, when everyone answered with a nod, he turned to look at their Don. “Luffy? Thoughts?”

“Well,” Luffy said, tilting her head to the side in thought. “Choppa asked a good question back at the Mansion.”

“I did?” Choppa asked, slightly surprised, before remembering what she’d asked. “Oh…yeah. I asked how we knew it’s the same people attacking both of us.”

“Since that is the main purpose of the letter, I would assume they have some kind of knowledge we do not.” Robin said calmly. “What have our own investigations come up with?”

“Usopp?” Luffy asked, looking at her information person.

“Well, at first, between witness interviews and the word on the streets, we had a lot of information, but no way of knowing what’s true and what wasn’t.” Usopp said, reading from her smartphone—encased in a dark yellow case—-that was suddenly in her palm.

“And…?” Sanji questioned, lighting another cigarette.

“Well, once we collected that information, I took it to Vivi.” Usopp said, tapping on her screen before landing on what she needed. “We asked him to see if he could find anything out from his end.”

“Did he?” Zoro asked, arms crossed as she leaned back in her chair.

“Thanks to help from his dad, he started discreetly looking into anything the FBI might of found at the scenes they were actually called to. After a week, we finally got something.” Usopp said, excited. “A description.”

“A description?” Brooke asked, swinging her shikomizue back and forth. “Of what, a person?”

Usopp shook her head _no_. “Not of a person, but of a distinct mark, a tattoo, on almost every attacker.” She smiled, really proud of this fact. “The witness descriptions, the back-alley chatter, and the FBI’s info are all consistent with that fact.”

“A tattoo?” Sanji questioned, giving the long-nosed woman a blank look. “Tattoos aren’t uncommon nowadays, Usopp.”

Usopp, in turn, gave the blonde a dirty look. “It isn’t the tattoo itself, Sanji. It’s what the tattoo’s _of.”_ Smiling wider, she added, “The FBI even had a drawing of it.”

“The kanji for _Hyakujū_ (百獣).” Robin stated before Usopp could continue.

Usopp immediately deflated before pouting at Robin. “You ruined my big reveal, Robin!” Crossing her arms childishly, she grudgingly asked, “How did you know that?”

Motioning to the letter he held in his hand, he said, “Don Trafalgar mentions it in her letter.” He then put a single slim finger on his chin, pondering something. “If the information you collected is the same as what the Heart Family discovered, then there really _is_ a connection between the attacks.”

“Seems that way.” Zoro said before looking at Luffy. “Well, boss, what do you think?” Though, by the look in her eye, the green-haired woman could already tell what Luffy had decided on.

Luffy already came to a decision awhile ago, but knew that the information Usopp got needed to be discussed; like Robin was always telling her, knowledge was power. Looking around the table at her inner-circle, her closest friends, she stated her choice. It was times like these you could tell why she’s the boss of the Family.

“Robin,” the black-haired man looked at her, “I want you to write a letter back to Don Trafalgar, stating that I’m interested in hearing what she has to say.”

“As you wish, Luffy.” Robin said with a small smile and nod.

Letting out a breath, she looked over at the dark-haired sniper. “Usopp?” Said-person looked over at her. “I’d like you to collect any information you can on the Heart Family. I don’t wanna go in blind.”

“Consider it done.” Usopp said, already typing something out in her smartphone before looking back up. “I _can_ tell you a few things right now about them, if you’d like.” At the raised eyebrows, she added, “I’ve already done some rudimentary research on the Family.”

“Go on, then.” Nami said, resting his arms on the table.

“Okay, the Heart Family.” Usopp tapped a few things on her phone before continuing. “Led by Trafalgar D. Water Law, known as the Surgeoness of Death—”

“What the hell has she done to earn a nickname like _that?”_ Nami asked, eyes wide.

Usopp grimaced, a shiver going down her spine. “You don’t want to know.” She shook her head quickly, removing the image, before going on. “She has eaten a Devil Fruit known as the Op-Op Fruit.” She looked over at Robin, seeing as he’s usually a fountain of information. “Do you know what it does?” His information was probably better than what she had.

Robin nodded. “I do. She’s able to create a space, or a kind of “room”, made of a light blue aura where she has complete control over the placement and even the orientation of anything and everything located inside it.” He got confused looks from his friends at his explanation, but he went on, knowing his next words should clear some things up. “She can do anything she wishes as long as she’s _inside_ that space, almost as if you’re a patient on an operating table. If I had to guess, that’s most likely where her epithet comes from, coupled with what I've heard are phenomenally skilled surgical abilities.” He shook his head, getting back to the point. “Simply put, she could cut you up or remove your heart if she so wished,” the weaker members of the Family gasped, “but that really isn’t the worst part.”

“There’s something _worse?”_ Nami asked, wide-eyed.

“You remain alive after she’s done.” When he got more confused looks, he elaborated. “Like I said, she can take you apart or remove your heart, but you _remain_ alive.”

“Wait,” Choppa said, standing up and leaning on the table, hands flat on the polished surface. “She can remove your _heart_ and you stay _alive?!”_ Robin nodded in confirmation. “How?! That’s medically impossible!”

Robin just shrugged his broad shoulders. “It is just how her Fruit works, I suppose.” Choppa plopped back down in her seat, stunned.

“So if we ever go up against her, stay out of her orb.” Sanji said as she breathed in her cigarette. “Good to know.”

“Shishishi.” Luffy laughed, looking rather excited.

“I apologize, Usopp. I didn’t mean to talk for so long.” Robin said, giving the sniper a small smile. “Continue with your explanation.”

Usopp smiled back. “It’s fine, Robin.” She looked down at her phone. “Well, her territories are in the North Blue District and also in some of Paradise. Her Family is decently sized, and it seems her inner-circle is made up of five people.”

“I wonder why we have such a large inner-circle?” Nami asked somewhat rhetorically.

“Well, Luffy needs a lot more help than the average Don.” Zoro said anyway, giving Nami a pointed looked, to which he nodded in agreement.

Usopp went on like they both didn’t speak. “Her Underboss’s name is Trafalgar D. Water Lami—”

“Wait a second.” Nami called out, looking over at Usopp. “Why do they have the same last name? Are they related?”

Usopp gave him a nod. “Lami is Don Trafalgar’s younger brother and is probably just as dangerous as his sister, though slightly less creepy.”

“Her brother as her Underboss.” Robin commented, drumming his fingers on the table. “How unusual.”

“Really?” Franki asked the black-haired man, eyebrow raised.

“It’s not a common practice, but not entirely unheard of, I suppose.” Robin commented, giving another small smile. “You just don’t see it very often.”

When she saw no one else was going to talk, Usopp continued with her explanation. “He’s known as the Quadra.” At the interested looks, Usopp offered a brief reason for the epithet. “He was given the name because of his ability to wield two guns or two swords at the same time.”

“Cool!” Luffy exclaimed, but glanced over at her own multi-wielding swordswoman. _But **my** Underboss can do that with three!_

“Continuing on,” Usopp said, pulling up the next page. “Her Consigliere is named Porter Bepa, also known as Snow Bear—”

“Why?” Choppa asked, curious.

“She ate a Devil Fruit as well.” Usopp informed. “The Bear-Bear Fruit, Polar Bear Model.” She looked over at Choppa. “It’s like yours, but she can turn into a polar bear.” Choppa nodded. “Then there’s Jean Bart, the enforcer and collector, and is nicknamed Giant. Next is Catala Shachi, also known as Yumiya, who does the info-gathering.”

“Why that nickname?” Sanji asked, blowing out a stream of smoke.

“Her weapon of choice is apparently some sort of recurve bow.” Usopp said, scratching the back of her neck. “She’s supposed to be a very good shot.”

“Not as good as you, though, Miss Usopp.” Brooke said with a kind smile.

Franki laughed. “Yeah! No one can top you at sniping.” There were nods and murmurs of agreement from the others.

Usopp puffed up her chest, exceedingly proud of the praise. “Well, of course not! I’m not called the Sniper Queen for nothing!”

The Family laughed at Usopp’s usual boasting behavior.

“Who’s the last one?” Luffy asked as she started spinning around in her chair. The young Don could be entertained rather easily.

Zoro let out a sigh before taking one of her katanas—still sheathed—and slipping it in one of the armrest holes, bringing the chair to a stop. “Stop spinning around, Luffy.”

“But Zo~ _ro!”_ Luffy whined, looking at her Underboss with wide eyes. “It’s fun!”

“It’s making me dizzy.” Zoro stated flatly as she put her katana back with the others, glaring at the ravenette, not at all moved by the puppy-dog look Luffy’s currently giving her; she’d built up some resistance to it over the eleven years she’d known Luffy, given that Luffy employed that look when she wanted something or to do something that no one else agreed with. Unsurprisingly, that happened quite a bit.

Luffy let out a whine, seeing how her “special look” was doing nothing. _“Fine!”_

She slumped back in her chair rather dramatically, now pouting and mumbling about how her Underboss was a _“meanie stupid head who’s no fun”_. Zoro just rolled her eye in fond exasperation, but the others were just staring at the two of them, still amazed at how Zoro could… _maintain_ Luffy so easily. Not even Nami could accomplish that; the most he could do was beat her into submission, but even _that_ didn’t work for too long. It seemed the only person Luffy would listen to was Zoro, and that went the other way as well. The two of them shared a very special bond based mostly upon mutual loyalty and trust, seeing as they knew each other better than they sometimes knew themselves. It’s also what made them the best of friends, despite their differing personalities.

Usopp cleared her throat. “Anyway, the last of the inner-circle is Manchot Penguin, also called Arctica. She has the power of the Penguin-Penguin Fruit, which—”

“Let’s her turn into a penguin!” Choppa said, a little excited. She hadn’t met a lot of other Zoan types yet.

Usopp chuckled. “Yeah. She deals with the alcohol/drug/weapon trade in the North Blue and some of Paradise.”

The others nodded, absorbing the information for a moment.

“Do you know their bounties?” Brooke asked, breaking the silence, twirling her shikomizue with her fingers.

“Umm…” Usopp said, tapping on her screen rapidly before smiling. “Yeah, I got them. Let’s see…the Don has the same bounty as Luffy does.”

“Cool!” Luffy said, eyes sparkling.

“Lami has a 505,000,000 bounty, Bepa has a 452,000,000 bounty, Bart’s is at 434,000,000 berries, Shachi has a 415,000,000 bounty, and Penguin has a 412,000,000 bounty.”

“A little low.” Sanji said, a tad surprised.

“Well, I don’t think they have the backgrounds that we do, Sanji.” Robin said with a shrug.

Sanji’s eyes turned to hearts. “Ah, right you are, Robin- _chan_.”

“Barf.” Zoro muttered, like she always did when Sanji acted like this.

“What was that, moss head?!” Sanji shouted, turning to face her.

“Nicely done, Usopp.” Nami complimented. “That was a good background check you ran.” Sanji, distracted by this comment, seethed as her Nami- _san_ praised the long-nosed woman.

Usopp just shrugged. “When the other two Families were named, along with ours, as the “Three Terrors” by the FBI, I thought it’d be good to have some information on them.” She put away her phone. “Though, I guess only the Heart Family information was relevant right now.”

“Three Terrors.” Zoro mocked, folding her arms behind her head. “How do the FBI come up with such ridiculous names?”

“It’s the FBI.” Nami said, smoothing back a strand of hair. “What did you expect?”

“With what’s happening now,” Usopp said, looking over at Luffy, “I’ll do a deeper background on the Family and _all_ their members. You’ll have it within the week.”

“That’d be great, Usopp.” Luffy said, smiling. “Thanks.” She then turned to the blue-haired cyborg. “Franki?”

“Yeah, Luffy-sis?”

“Once Robin is done writing that letter, I’d like you to pick two members of your gang to deliver it.” Luffy stated, resting her chin in her palm. “This is _really_ important, so I want you to pick the two who’d be the _least_ likely to start a problem.”

“I’m _supah_ on it!” Franki said, jumping up and doing her signature move. “You can trust me, sis.”

“Good, thanks.” Luffy said before looking at all her friends with a wide smile. “So, I guess we get to meet one of the other top Families, huh?”

“Well, if that’s the case,” Nami said, a weird glint in his eyes, “we’re gonna need the appropriate outfits.” Standing up suddenly and grabbing onto Luffy’s arm tightly, Nami exclaimed, “Time to go shopping!”

* * *

It was a week later that the Straw Hats heard back from the Heart Family; this time, the envelope they received contained only a single card with a date, time, and location written on it. The ball was now in motion as the game began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, was that any good? I like where I'm going, but I'd love to have y'alls opinion! Any suggestions or things you'd like me to add; I'll listen to anything you have to say. Until next time...
> 
> Brooke's Weapon -  
> \- Soul Solid: a shikomizue (cane sword); a stainless steel, slender rapier-pointed blade; the cane covering lavender; able to call forth the cold from the afterlife


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now is the time when the story picks up, where the plot begins, I guess. Again, there will be descriptions in this chapter, and I'm sorry if any of you find them too long, but if you, again, don't like them, don't read them. All there is to it. I hope I wrote this okay and you can understand what they're talking about. Also, I hope I get most of the characters' personalities correct. Anyway, on with the show!
> 
> *If you follow the link to my pinterest page, on there you'll find pics of things for this story (like the houses, what I'm using for bounty posters, weapons, etc); it'll be under the board listed as "FF Story: Cappello di Paglia". Just sayin'.  
> http://pinterest.com/psychgrimmlover/

**Two Weeks Later…**

“Luffy, for the love of all berries, _please_ keep still!” Nami yelled loudly at his Don as she continued to squirm in place.

“But Naaa _ammi!”_ Luffy complained, fidgeting in place as the orange-haired man continued to get her ready; surprisingly, Nami was very good at it. “This is so _boring.”_

“Getting dressed is not meant to be fun, Luffy.” Nami said as he finished tying the black skinny tie, pausing to smooth it down over her dark red oxford blouse and adjust it around the wide collar. “There. Now, go sit down so I can try and tame that mess you call hair.”

Luffy, knowing better than to argue with him right now, trudged over to the bathroom and dropped into the seat the man had previously brought in, pouting the whole way. Nami shook his head in exasperation—sometimes his Don could be the biggest child in the world, but he wouldn’t trade her for anything or anyone else, even if you offered him all the berries in the universe. Following after her, he paused halfway there when he heard Luffy’s bedroom door open and then Zoro strolled in, dressed in everything he picked out, minus her black crêpe-trimmed jacket.

“Very nice, Zoro.” Nami approved with a small smile.

Normally, Zoro and him would be at each others’ throats over one thing or another, but when it’s just them and Luffy, alone, they didn’t feel the need to bark at each other; more or less, the fighting was for appearances, though they didn’t know why. The three of them, having been together since the beginning, were the closest of the inner-circle, and usually just treated each other as siblings—siblings loved each other and siblings would sometimes be at your throats, that's just how it worked. Out of everyone, Zoro and Nami were the most loyal to Luffy, willing to do just about anything for her.

Turning around in the doorway, Nami gave Zoro a more thorough look-over. She’s wearing a white sleeveless blouse, the top few buttons left undone, a black skirt with ruffled edges and a thigh-high slit over her right leg, and black stilettos. And, of course, attached at her right hip were her three katanas, but that’s to be expected as she went nowhere without them.

“Wait, where’s your pendant?” Nami asked, referring to her circular emerald pendant on a gold necklace that Luffy gave her, same as she gave every member of her inner-circle.

Zoro huffed before pulling out the chain from under her blouse, showing a glittering green jewel that winked back at him. “Right here. I’d never go anywhere without it.” Squinting her one good eye, she looked around. “Where’s Luffy?”

“In here, Zoro!” Luffy cheerfully called back from the bathroom. “Nami’s trying to…uh…tame my hair?”

Zoro chuckled at that as she followed the man into the bathroom. “Good luck with that one. How many times have you tried to do that before?”

“It’ll work this time.” Nami said decisively, circling around Luffy. “I’ll make it.” Zoro just snorted in amusement.

With her blouse and tie, Luffy also had her circular ruby pendant hanging from a gold chain around her neck and was wearing a black suit skirt, that reached mid-thigh, with a small slit over her right leg, a dark brown belt, and, much to Nami’s chagrin, her usual black flip-flop straw sandals.

Frowning in concentration, Nami grabbed the girl’s straw hat and placed it carefully in Luffy’s lap before grabbing a comb and brushing through the long, soft raven black strands. Zoro walked over to the mirror and ran a few fingers through her own hair, making sure it was smoothed back and neat, before turning and settling against the countertop, content on waiting…and watching Nami fail, of course.

It took several minutes before Nami finally admitted defeat on Luffy’s messy hair and just settled on making sure to get all the tangles out. It was made even more difficult by Luffy’s constant need to _move_ —so several times he’d pull too hard when she suddenly shifted—before he finally finished. Grabbing the straw hat from her lap, he sat it back on top of her head and, placing both hands on her shoulders, nodded.

“I’ve done all I can do.” Squeezing his shoulders, she said, “Go and grab the last of your things. We’re going to need to leave soon.”

“Yay!” Luffy shouted, hopping out of the chair and running back into her room, Zoro following behind her.

Shaking his head in fond exasperation, Nami took a minute to make sure he still looked alright after all of… _that_. He stepped back to look at himself in the mirror, giving his reflection a scrutinizing once-over: a black suit jacket buttoned closed over a bubblegum pink dress shirt, the top two buttons left undone, a black skinny tie, black suit pants—where a black belt with a silver berry symbol-buckle was threaded through the loops and his Clima-Tact was kept, separated, on the right side—black dress shoes, and his own brooch—this one a circular citrine jewel—was pinned to his jacket’s right lapel. Pausing to run a hand through his slightly long hair, which was being left down, he finally went downstairs to go join the other two in the living room to wait for the others.

As soon as he sat down on the other side of Luffy, he heard footsteps heading down the stairs before both Usopp and Choppa came into view, fully dressed in the outfits he picked out for them. Usopp’s wearing a black one-button blazer over an olive green oxford blouse and golden orange tie, a black suit skirt that reached mid-thigh, black leather high-heeled, knee-high boots, and keeping her hair back was a red bandana; her circular sphene pendant was hanging from a gold chain around her neck and, underneath her blazer, you could just make out her shoulder holster, containing Ginga and Pachinko—her twin Beretta 92FS INOXs. Choppa’s dressed in a black long-sleeved, knee-length dress with a purple collar and purple ruffles lining the hemline, a pale red ribbon tied around her collar in a bow, and black kitten heels; worn on a gold chain around her neck was her circular kunzite pendant and on her head was her usual hat.

“You both look very beautiful.” Nami complimented, causing both women to pause in surprise; Nami was _never_ nice like that. He’s rather infamous for his fiery temper, after all.

“Uh, thank you?” Usopp ask-answered, moving over to sit in the loveseat with Choppa right behind her.

While they waited for the others, Nami continued to go over what to do and what not to do at the meeting with Luffy, who, of course, was only half-listening. Another ten minutes passed by before Franki strutted in, looking rather good in her outfit too. She’s wearing a light purple oxford blouse with pink Hawaiian flower designs and the top few buttons left undone, black slim suit pants, a black belt, black stilettos, and hanging from a gold chain was her circular blue topaz pendant.

“Whoa!” Franki called out, doing a little spin before ending in her signature move. “I’m feeling _SUPAH!”_ Looking over at Nami, she smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. “I’m loving the outfit, Nami-bro.”

Nami smiled back at Franki. “Well, I’m glad, Franki.”

“Yohohoho,” came the familiar laugh from behind Franki before Brooke came into view. “Sounds like everyone’s having fun in here.”

Brooke’s all dressed up in a black long-sleeved dress with a red flounced bodice, Juliet sleeves, ruffled cuffs, white collar, and knee-length circle skirt and black leather high-heeled, thigh-high boots; pinned on the left side of her hair was a red flower, hanging from a gold chain was her circular black agate pendant, and hanging over her arm, as usual, was Soul Solid. She looked every part the lady she was…most of the time.

Turning to look at the orange-haired man, Brooke said, “Nami- _san_ , these outfits are simply wonderful. You have impeccable taste.”

Blushing lightly, Nami replied, “Thanks, Brooke. I’m happy everyone likes their clothes.”

“One thing, if I may?” Brooke questioned.

“Hmm?” Nami hummed out in question.

Clearing her throat, looking like she was about to ask an all-important question, but what came out was, “May I see your—?”

She never finished her sentence as a loud _BONK_ was heard and Brooke was now on the floor, holding her head, while Nami separated his weapon and calmly put the pieces of his Clima-Tact back into its customary place. This was the scene Robin and Sanji walked in on as they finally arrived. As usual, Robin showed little expression, except for a small smile, but Sanji guessed what had happened.

“Ask him again, Brooke, and I will personally kick your bony ass!” Sanji shouted before she calmly lit another cigarette.

Sanji was wearing a black one-button blazer left open over a blue oxford blouse covered in light blue polkadots with a wide collar, large lapels, and top few buttons left undone, a black layered skirt that stopped a little above her knees, silvery-blue sheer tights, black ankle-strapped platform heels, and hanging from a gold chain was her circular kyanite pendant.

“Nami- _san_!!!!” Sanji called out before noodle-dancing over to said man. “The outfit you picked out personally for me is everything I love! But not as much as I love you!!!”

“Could you do that elsewhere, crap-cook?” Zoro muttered lazily, leaning back in the sofa with her arms crossed.

Fire automatically overtaking Sanji, she spun to face Zoro. “What was that, you shitty sword freak?!”

“I said _move_ , eyebrows.” Zoro growled out, eye narrowed on the blonde.

“You wanna make me!?” And they were off, circling around the living room, the only sounds heard being loud bangs and the clang of heels on sword blades.

“My, isn’t everyone so lively.” Robin commented with a serene smile.

He’s wearing a black suit jacket over an orange pinstriped dress shirt and black tie, black suit pants, a dark purple belt, black dress shoes, and pinned to his jacket’s right lapel was his circular amethyst brooch.

“Seems like everyone’s here.” Usopp commented, ducking just before a kick came flying over her head. “We should probably get going.”

“Wooo!” Luffy cheered, having previously been watching as Zoro and Sanji chased each other around the room. “Let’s go! Maybe there’ll be meat!”

Smacking the back of her head, Nami hissed, “Idiot! Not everything is about meat.”

Rubbing the back of her head, Luffy pouted at him before standing up, everyone else following suit. Since Zoro and Sanji were still fighting like morons, Nami took it upon himself to smack the both of them over their heads, promptly declaring himself the winner. While that happened, Robin helped Luffy get into her black high-collared, “captain’s” overcoat (decorated with gold clasps along the opening and gold/white fringe lining the cuffs), draping it over her shoulders like a cape. Nami had that custom-made for Luffy, stating that all Mob Bosses wore coats like this and if she’s going to go to a meeting with one of the other top Dons, then she’s sure as hell not going without one.

“Now, let’s go.” Nami said with a smirk, buffing off his fist as Zoro and Sanji nursed their wounds.

“Your hits are a gift from above, Nami- _san_!” Sanji cooed while Zoro merely muttered out, _“Goddamn it.”_

Moving to the door, the nine Straw Hats made their way into the large garage before splitting off into two groups and getting into two separate black Chevrolet Suburbans: Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Brooke in one car, and Sanji, Robin, Choppa and Franki in the other.

It took about an hour to get to the address listed on the card—somewhere in the middle of the Paradise District—and when they pulled up, all they could see was a plain, empty warehouse, surrounded by other equally-as-plain warehouses. Driving around to the other side so they weren’t in the view of the street, they parked next to the other black SUV—a Cadillac Escalade—that was already there, before turning off the engines and getting out. Looking at the other car, Nami made an annoyed sound.

“Great. We’re the last ones to arrive.” Rubbing his forehead, he let out another groan. “Just perfect.”

“Calm down, Nami.” Robin said soothingly, placing a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “We’re still ten minutes early.”

Letting out a breath, Nami nodded. “You’re right. Of course.” Smoothing down his jacket, he spun and locked his sights on his Don. “Luffy!”

“What?” Luffy asked, her ever-present grin stretching wide over her face.

“Do you remember what I told you?” Nami asked seriously.

“Uhhh…” Luffy said, scratching her head in thought before smiling wider. “Nope, not a thing!”

“Whyyyyy…” Nami groaned out, covering his face with his hands.

“Nami, don’t worry about it.” Zoro called out, causing the man to look up. “She’s always like this, you know that.”

“I know, I know.” Nami said softly before smiling at the raven-haired young lady. “Okay, Luffy, listen closely.” He waited until he had her full attention before continuing. “If there are any decisions to be made, you consult me and Zoro first, got it? That’s all I need you to remember.”

“Shishishi, okay!!!” Luffy exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air.

 _She’s so childish, some would wonder how she’s the Don of a Family_ , Nami thought as he watched Zoro try to contain her. _But most haven’t seen the darker side she possesses, the side that comes out when she's pushed close to the edge. Me and Zoro have only ever seen it, and we agreed we’d rather never see it again_. Shaking his head, he brushed off those thoughts before joining the others.

“Alright!!” Luffy called out with glee. “Let’s go meet some new people!”

“That’s not the point of this meeting, Luffy.” Nami reminded her but gave up when Zoro just shook her head.

Moving to flank her automatically as Luffy started to move, Zoro stood to the right of her while Nami moved to her left; Robin, Choppa and Franki went to the right side, next to Zoro, while Sanji, Usopp and Brooke flanked the left, near Nami. When everyone was ready, the Straw Hat Family made their way into the warehouse, ready to find out just what this was all about.

* * *

After walking into the door and through the first room, which was empty, the Straw Hats entered the only other room there was in the warehouse, which _was_ occupied, both by a large, round wooden table…and the other Family. As soon as they entered, every eye in the room turned to look at them, and one of the women—who’d been the only one sitting down at the table in the seat facing the door—automatically stood up; Luffy then finally got a personal look at the Head of the Heart Family, Don Trafalgar D. Water Law. She found her eyes meeting with the other Don’s as she studied her back and noticed how she seemed to be giving Luffy a strange, bemused, somewhat _interested_ look that Luffy didn't quite know what to do with. _Weird. Must be a Mystery Look. I’ll ask Zoro later_ , Luffy thought.

The 32-year-old Law was a slender, statuesque woman with a model-like figure, tan skin, faint shadows right under her slate gray eyes, and a pair of gold hoops in either ear. She had hip-length, straight, somewhat messy black hair with choppy bangs and topped by a white spherical fur Wool Skipper with a thick bill and dark brown spots along the bottom; painted on her long fingernails was black polish, over her chest was a black tattoo of an elaborate tribal-style heart with a smiley face under the top-curls of the heart, and on both her hands were more black tattoos: the letters **D** , **E** , **A** , **T** , and **H** were on the back of each of her fingers and a filled-in circle with T protrusions in four directions was on the back of either hand—Luffy didn’t know why, but she suspected she had more than the three that were visible to her. She’s dressed in a black three-button blazer closed over a white oxford blouse, the top few buttons left undone, a black suit skirt that reached mid-thigh, sapphire blue stilettos, and, draped over her shoulders like a cape, was a black “captain’s” overcoat with silver fluff lining the collar and cuffs and held closed at the collar by a chain. Catching her eye, and probably Zoro’s interest, was the large nodachi propped up against the chair, sheathed in a long black scabbard dotted with white crosses.

Standing spread out behind Law seemed to be the “inner-circle” of the Heart Family. The first one Luffy catalogued was one of the two men in the group, and he was currently whispering something to his Don with an eager look on his face, looking excited about something. This could be no one but the 26-year-old Trafalgar D. Water Lami, the Don’s own younger brother—but by looking between the two, you really wouldn’t be able to tell that. He had mediumish, shaggy, messy light reddish-brunet hair with choppy, side-swept fringe, light gray eyes, fair skin, a slim, wiry body, and in his ears were small silver hoops. He was wearing a black two-piece suit with a silver chain attached to the jacket’s left breast pocket, a white dress shirt, a black/white-striped tie, a black eyelet-studded belt, and black dress shoes; peeking out from underneath the jacket was a shoulder holster, which seemed to hold his guns, twin M1911 pistols, but Luffy had no idea where he kept his twin wakizashi.

Standing slightly behind the Underboss was a slender, model-esque woman with snowy white skin, scapula-length, sleek white blonde hair parted to the right and held back by a red headband with a bow on the right side, smoky gray eyes, and black lips; on her fingernails was black polish and in her ears were white hoops. She’s wearing a black dress that reached her knees with tonal bishop sleeves and a wrap-effect bust and black T-bar platform sandals—this had to be the 29-year-old Bepa. Standing beside her was an _extremely_ tall, brawny, athletic man with waist-length, scruffy black hair and large sideburns, dark brown eyes, and dark tan skin; there were twin flame-patterned tattoos on his forehead and a stitched scar was running just above his right eye. He’s dressed in a black two-piece suit with a silver chain attached to the jacket’s left breast pocket, a white dress shirt, a maroon tie, a black belt, black dress shoes, black leather gloves, and a brown wristband around his right wrist. This would be the 45-year-old Jean Bart.

Next would be a slender, well-endowed, curvaceous woman with light tan skin, whiskey brown eyes, and shoulder-length, layered auburn brunette hair with choppy bangs covered by a turquoise Casquette hat with a pale red bill; pushed over her forehead were a pair of black sunglasses and on either of her forearms were identical black tattoos: a filled-in circle with T protrusions in six directions surrounded by an elliptical sun-like shape. She’s wearing a black sleeveless, V-neck dress that reached her knees with seamed panels at the waist, a black leather horsebit belt cinched around her waist, and black lace-up pumps; clipped to the right side of her belt was a black collapsible recurve bow, sheathed in a band circling her right thigh was a combat knife, and resting on her back was a customized trick arrow quiver—therefore, this could be nobody else but the 29-year-old Shachi. Last of the group was another slender, well-endowed, curvaceous woman with golden tan skin, dark brown eyes, hip-length, straight dark brunette hair with caramel highlights and choppy bangs topped by a black cap with a yellow brim, red pompom on top, and **PENGUIN** displayed on the front, black dangling earrings, and some tattoos, all in dark red: on either forearm was the same tattoo the other woman had and curling around either thigh were elaborate swirl-patterns; she’s dressed in a black sleeveless, scoop-neck dress that reached her knees with a white stripe across the waist and cropped overlay and black high-heeled ankle boots. Thanks to the hat, this had to be the 28-year-old Penguin.

It was silent as everyone sized everyone else up, but it was broken about five minutes later.

“Don Straw Hat- _ya_ , I appreciate you agreeing to meet with me.” Don Trafalgar said, her voice somehow a mix of velvet and silk, politeness and sarcasm. “I’m glad you were able to find the location.”

Luffy—head slightly tilted in confusion at the weird feeling she got from hearing the other Don’s voice—said nothing as she walked over to the only other chair pushed under the table, moving to stand in front of it as her Family spread out behind her.

The younger Don then smiled wide and let out a laugh. “Shishishi. No problem! Thank you for the invitation.”

 _See, Nami, I did remember some of the things you told me. Be polite, and I was, so ha!_ Luffy thought proudly to herself.

Planting her hands on the table and leaning slightly forwards, her smile widened as she announced, “My name’s Monkey D. Luffy and I’m gonna be Capo di tutti Capi!”

The other Family didn’t quite know how to respond to that…proclamation.

 _Idiot!_ Nami shouted in his head, trying to hide a scowl. He took a step forward and laid a hand on Luffy’s shoulder, pulling her back before pressing down hard, causing Luffy to, more or less, fall into her seat; the other Don, though confused, followed suit shortly after.

Giving the other Don a polite smile, he said, “I apologize for my Don. She’s rather…ambitious.” Clamping roughly down on Luffy’s shoulder in warning, the ravenette fought the urge to squirm as she received his message, loud and clear. “She also tends to speak without thinking first.”

“No need to be sorry.” Don Trafalgar almost seemed to purr, the small smirk still playing on her lips as she gazed at Luffy. “I find her straightforwardness…refreshing.” She tilted her head slightly. “If you don’t mind me saying, you seem rather…young to be the head of a Family. How old are you, Don Straw Hat- _ya_?”

“I’m twenty-five.” Luffy said as she rested her chin in her hands.

Law’s eyes widened slightly at that as she shared a look with her Underboss; she had to be the youngest of the Supernovas. “And you’re already this successful. When did you start your Family?”

“I was fifteen, I think.” Luffy said, lips pursed, before looking at Zoro in question, who gave a nod in return. “Yeah, fifteen.”

Trying to hide her shock, Law’s gaze moved to the people standing behind Luffy. “And who might you all be?”

“I’m Mandarina Nami, one of the Don’s Consiglieres.” Nami answered with a smile, dipping his head slightly. “Wonderful to meet you, Don Trafalgar.” He turned slightly to motion at Zoro, “The green-haired woman carrying the katanas is Roronoa Zoro, our Underboss.”

Zoro only nodded her head in greeting.

“Standing next to her is Nico Robin, another Consigliere.” Nami said, gesturing at the black-haired man.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Robin said with a simple smile.

Pointing at Choppa, Nami said, “Next to her is Tony Tony Choppa, our personal doctor and surgeon.”

Smiling bashfully, she squirmed some in place. “Hello.”

“And the blue-haired woman would be Cutty Franki, one of our Caporegime.” Nami said, pointing to her.

“It’s _supah_ nice to meet you.” Franki said, though restrained from doing her usual pose, thank goodness.

Motioning next to him, he continued. “This is Cuire Sanji, the Don’s final Consigliere.”

Sanji said nothing but inclined her head, still puffing on her cigarette.

“Next to her is Tirador Usopp, another Caporegime, and our sniper.” Nami went on—he knew Luffy should be doing these introductions, but you never know what’d come out of Luffy’s mouth when she spoke.

Usopp gave a nervous wave.

“And, lastly, the lady with the afro-like hair is Debonés Brooke, our final Caporegime.” Nami said with a final inclination of his hand.

“Yohoho.” Brooke said, giving a slight curtsey. “Nice to meet you.”

“So,” Luffy finally spoke, leaning back in her chair, smile still wide. “Who’re your friends?” Of course she already _knew_ who everyone was, but it’d be rude not to ask, after all. The other Don did so.

Law’s smirk widened, amused, before motioning behind her. “This young man is my Underboss, Trafalgar D. Water Lami.”

“I _also_ happen to be her brother,” the Underboss gave a smile and wave. “A pleasure to meet you all.”

“Yes, that too.” Law said with an eye-roll before pointing next to him. “That’s Porter Bepa, my Consigliere.”

Bepa gave nothing more than a nod before her eyes fell back to the floor.

“This is Jean Bart, one of my Caporegime.” The woman said, motioning to the extremely tall gentleman standing next to Bepa.

“A pleasure,” the tall man said in a deep voice.

Law pointed to the auburn-haired woman next. “This is Catala Shachi, another of my Caporegime, as well as my sniper.”

“Nice to meet you.” Shachi answered, nodding her head, though her gaze seemed to be stuck on Usopp, looking thoughtful…and maybe a little bit admiring?

“And this is Manchot Penguin, my final Caporegime.” Law finished, motioning to the woman next to Shachi.

The long-haired woman did nothing but nod in greeting, eyes studying everyone across from her.

“Hmmm…” Luffy hummed out, smile still wide. “Nice to meet ya!”

“Luffy!” Nami hissed out, though his polite smile stayed in place.

“Well, now that everybody’s here and accounted for, why don’t we begin?” Law said, leaning slightly on the table.

“Okay.” Luffy answered, tilting her head to the side. “You said something about the attacks and an alliance?”

“I did.” Law answered with a nod. “Let’s start with the attacks, since that’ll lead to the alliance.” She took a breath, before asking a clarifying question. “You’ve had territories that were attacked for seemingly no reason at all, correct?”

“Yup.” Luffy answered, though nobody but her Family saw the way her hands were clenched underneath the table. “They’ve become much more frequent in the past two weeks. Five more of my territories have been hit since I got your letter.” Huffing out, she added, “I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I, Straw Hat- _ya_.” Law said, her lips set in a slight frown. “It was when I was looking into my own attacks that led me to you and what is happening with your territories, that we were being attacked by the same people.”

Luffy nodded in understanding before stating, “We did confirm it on our end.”

“How?” Law asked, looking at Luffy, slightly curious.

“We were already looking into the attacks before the letter came,” Luffy said, pressing her feet together under her chair, “and Usopp found out about the tattoo that you also described. That’s how we knew we’re dealing with the same attackers.”

“The kanji for _Hyakujū_ (百獣).” Law stated, steepling her fingers. “So I _was_ correct, you found those as well.” The other Don nodded in confirmation.

“But who are they?” Luffy asked, rocking back and forth, as she could never stay still for long. “And why are they attacking our territories?”

“ _Only_ our territories.” Law added, tone a bit angrier.

“Just the two of ours?” Luffy questioned, looking at Law.

Law nodded. “It’s why I invited only you here.” She sighed, rubbing her eyes. “Like I said, while looking into the attacks, our investigation turned up that these people were attacking your territories as well.” She propped her chin on her still-steepled fingers. “So, of course, I had Shachi- _ya_ try and see if anyone else was being attacked, but it seems only we are.”

“So our territories are being targeted specifically.” Nami summed up, speaking up when he saw the look of concentration on Luffy’s face.

“Why?” Luffy then thought aloud. “What do these people have against us?”

“We can speculate all we want, but it’ll get us nowhere.” Law said decisively. “We need to take action.”

“Which is why you invited me here.” Luffy said seriously. It’s scary how professional she could get when the time called for it.

“You’re right, Straw Hat- _ya_.” Law said with a nod. “We could come at this separately, but I think we’d have a better chance of fixing this problem if we worked together.”

“And that’s where the alliance comes in.” Luffy stated, looking contemplative.

Law nodded. “Our chances are better if we form an alliance. We could get a lot more done this way.”

**. . .**

“I like it.” Luffy suddenly said, banging her fist on the table. “Let’s do it!”

“Luffy!” Nami hissed before smiling at the other Don. “Excuse us for a moment.” Nami grabbed the chair Luffy was sitting in before spinning it so she’s facing them. “What did I tell you about decisions, Luffy?”

Luffy pouted while playing with her fingers. “To talk to you and Zoro first.”

“Right.” Nami said proudly. “Now, let’s discuss this.”

“Zoro,” the green-haired woman looked at Luffy, “what do you think?” Luffy trusted Zoro’s opinion as much as her own, the two of them usually being on the same wavelength about mostly everything.

“I don’t necessarily trust this Family, but Don Trafalgar makes a good point.” Zoro said, resting her arm on her katanas. “An alliance would get a lot more accomplished than if we were by ourselves.”

“Yes, that’s true…” Nami said, nodding thoughtfully. “It also prevents us from butting heads as we deal with this.”

“Yeah. And since we are both going against the same enemy, it’d make more sense to come at it together.” Zoro finished, looking at the orange-haired man.

Nami nodded again in understanding.

“Then…?” Luffy questioned, looking between her Underboss and top Consigliere.

“Okay, let’s do it.” Nami said while Zoro nodded her agreement.

“Yay!” Luffy cheered before spinning around to face the table again, where the other Don was patiently waiting. “We’ll do it. Let’s form an alliance!”

“Good.” Law said, slight relief in her voice. “But before we can do anything, we need to figure out just who it _is_ we’re up against.” She paused in thought, before continuing, “I say we let our…investigators each look into that and meet up in a week to compare notes.” Luffy nodded in understanding and Law went on. “We’d compile more information that way, and after that, we can make a plan of action.”

“Sounds good.” Luffy said after thinking it over, looking back at her Family, who nodded as well.

“Now, where should we meet?” Law asked, leaning back in her chair in thought. "We can't use this place again."

“How about the Thousand Sunny?” Luffy offered before turning to the black-haired man. “Would that be okay, Robin?”

“Of course, Don.” Robin said with a slight nod. “Whatever you need.”

“The Thousand Sunny?” Law questioned, though that name did sound familiar.

The rest of the Hearts gave a questioning look as well. That name rang a bell in their heads, though they couldn’t say _why_.

“Shishishi.” Luffy laughed while rocking back and forth. “The Thousand Sunny is an underground bar we own.”

“Where is it?” Law asked, now recognizing the name.

“It’s in the basement of Robin’s store.” Luffy answered happily.

“And no one knows about it?” Lami now asked, a little surprised.

“We had the basement taken off the blueprints so no one knows it exists.” Robin informed. “It’s very well-hidden.”

“Taken off?” Law asked, eyebrow raised.

“We have a _very_ good computer hacker on our payroll.” Nami said, a proud smirk playing on his lips. “He made it so the basement never even existed.” Clasping his hands in front of him, he added, “I also stole the original blueprints and replaced them with an identical copy, sans basement.”

“Then that’ll do.” Law said, kind of surprised. That was very thorough.

Robin nodded. “I’ll give you my store’s address.”

“Well, seems like we’re done here.” Law said, pushing her chair back from the table.

“Yup!” Luffy called out, jumping out of her seat.

Law smirked at her enthusiasm, standing up as well. “Then we’ll see each other in a week.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, was that any good? And yes, Luffy is Don Straw Hat b/c calling her Don Monkey just sounds...really weird. I like where I'm going, but I'd love to have y'alls opinion! Any suggestions or things you'd like me to add; I'll listen to anything you have to say. I hope things were explained clear enough. Until next time...
> 
> Law's Nodachi (for those who'd like to know) -  
> \- Kikoku (Cry of the Demon): a nodachi; a moderately curved, slender, single-edged, 35.79” black blade with a silver edge; a lilac purple tsuka-ito (hilt-wrapping) with purple samegawa (ray skin wrap), white bandaging wrapped around the middle, a golden kashira (pommel), and a large elliptical tsuba (hand-guard) coated in short white fur; a black saya (scabbard) with white crosses from the opening to the bottom, a red sageo (cord) tied near its opening (with a pair of tassels hanging off), and a golden kojiri (end cap)  
> Lami's Weapons -  
> \- Akumanouta (Song of the Demons): twin wakizashi: a moderately curved, slender, single-edged, 21” black blade with a silver edge; a white tsuka-ito (hilt-wrapping) with black samegawa (ray skin wrap), a golden kashira (pommel), and a golden rhombus tsuba (hand-guard); kept on the back, under the top, in a specialized holster so the hilts are facing downwards  
> \- Howaito & Yūrei (White Ghosts): twin M1911 Pistols/Colt Governments; a single-action, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, recoil-operated white pistol; as the expanding combustion gases force the bullet down the barrel, they give reverse momentum to the slide and barrel which are locked together during this portion of the firing cycle; after the bullet has left the barrel, the slide and barrel continue rearward a short distance  
> Shachi's Weapons -  
> \- a Recurve Bow (collapsible): capable of folding in on itself; has a selector and transmitter that allows control of the mechanical quiver so simply by pressing a button on the handle grip, an arrow then combines with the selected specialized arrowhead  
> \- a Trick Arrow Quiver: mechanized and can swap arrowheads—including standard, explosive, grappling hook, blunt edge, multi-tip, acid, net, putty, sonic, cable, smoke bomb, rocket, suction-tip, boomerang or electrified  
> \- a Combat Knife: a steel, broad blade with a clip point; an S-guard; black stacked leather washer hilt; leather scabbard  
> \- a black leather Damascus Archery Glove: full palm; 3 fingers; soft and very durable


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is more of a filler. I needed a way to introduce the FBI and some other characters and this is what I came up with. I feel somewhat okay about it. Its a bit random, but, eh, it happened. The main plot line will pick back up in the next chapter! Hope you enjoy!

**FBI Headquarters (Inside a Meeting Room)**

“The Mafia Families have been stirring up trouble in the Six Districts as of late, especially with the Supernovas gaining more strength and territories.” Director Ishimori Sengoku announced to the roomful of select agents. “But these three…these three are the major problem right now.”

Sengoku gestured to the large board hanging at the front of room, the words **The Three Terrors** going across the top with photos of Luffy, Kid, and Law placed a little below them; the name of their individual Families were posted right above their pictures and underneath each picture were the names of the known inner-members and important associates of each Family.

* * *

**Read If You Wanna...**

Under Luffy’s picture was the name “ **Straw Hat Luffy** ” before a line connected to a picture of Zoro, the name “ **Santoryu Demoness Zoro** ” underneath it; another line went off that name before branching out into three, each connected to three different pictures of Nami, Sanji, and Robin, with the names, respectively, “ **Neko Burglar Nami** ”, “ **Black Leg Sanji** ”, and “ **Devil Robin** ” underneath. The straight line continued down before branching out, leading to three more pictures, these of Usopp, Franki, and Brooke; their names were spelled out beneath them, respectively, “ **Sniper Queen Usopp** ”, “ **Cyborg Franki** ”, and “ **Soul Queen Brooke** ”. With several unconnected lines below that, there’s a picture of Choppa, with “ **Sakura Choppa** ” listed underneath it, a picture of a tidy-looking pink-haired man with the name “ **Phantom Lawyer Bec** ” listed beneath it, then (blurry) pictures of a professional-looking blond and gothic pink-haired man with “?”s underneath them, and then three more pictures with just “?” on them, the names “ **Sand Prince** ”, “ **Ultraviolet** ”, and “ **m1k4n** ” underneath them.

* * *

Sengoku planted a hand over Luffy’s picture. “Straw Hat Luffy, Don of the Straw Hat Family.” Next, he pointed to Kid’s. “Captain Kid, Don of the Kid Family.” Last, he landed on Law’s picture. “Death Surgeoness Law, Don of the Heart Family.” Removing his hand, he pinched his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “We’ve been calling them the “Three Terrors” because whenever there’s a large incident, these three are usually connected to it in one way or another.”

“Is something going to be done?” an agent from the back asked.

“That’s why I called you here.” The Director said, grabbing a manilla folder before coming to stand in front of the meeting table. “Unfortunately, surveillance teams each got photos a few days ago of two of these three Families meeting in an abandoned warehouse,” he threw the folder down on the table, the pictures spilling out, “at the same time.”

No one said anything as the pictures were looked at.

“We’re under the assumption that the Heart Family and Straw Hat Family had a meeting of some sort, but of what, we don’t know.” He sighed. “Since no blood was shed, it was a peaceful meeting, and that leads me to assume the worst.”

“The worst?” another agent asked.

“That these two Families are talking about an alliance.” Sengoku stated, and that immediately brought pandemonium from almost everyone in the room; he let the talking go on for a little bit before slamming his hand down, grabbing the attention again. “With that in mind, it has been decided we need to be more…proactive in bringing these Families down. No matter that the Kid Family was not in on this meeting, she and her Family are still too dangerous not to keep an eye on.” He glanced at each agent gathered. “It has been decided to select teams to be assigned to the three Families, that way we have someone focused on each.”

Grabbing a box from behind him, Sengoku placed it on the table before looking at two particular agents. “S.A.C. Smoker, A.S.A.C. Tashigi,” they both looked up, “we have chosen you and your team to be assigned to the Straw Hat Family.” He slid the box towards them. “The rest of the files are being sent to your offices now.”

“Heh.” Smoker scoffed, puffing on his customary two cigars as he looked at the picture of the smiling Luffy placed on the board. “Looks too young to be any trouble.”

“Don’t be fooled by her age, Smoker. Nor her gender.” Sengoku warned, bringing Smoker’s attention back to him. “She’s a lot more dangerous than her initial appearance leads you to believe.” At this, he turned to glare at the Deputy Director, who just crossed his arms and let out a mix between a grunt and scoff, continuing to munch on his rice crackers.

Tashigi, on the other hand, was looking at the picture of the green-haired Underboss—well, more specifically, what she could tell was a hilt of a katana. "Is that…"

“What is it?” Sengoku said, glancing at the woman sitting next to Smoker.

“Nothing, sir!” she immediately said, turning her attention to the box.

“Now, for the Heart Family, S.A.C. Hina…”

The young pink-haired agent heard nothing more as she snuck out of the room, her outward appearance calm, though, on the inside, she’s anything but. Her partner, noticing her hasty retreat, followed her out, a good guess on to why she left.

“Koby.” The woman called. “Koby! Wait up!”

Said agent didn’t appear to hear her as she continued to mutter to herself, hands wringing in front of her.

“Koby!” her partner yelled before finally reaching her, laying a restraining hand on her shoulder. “Would you stop!”

“Ah!” Koby startled before spinning to look behind her. “Oh, it’s only you, Helmeppa. Why’d you leave the meeting?”

Helmeppa only rolled her eyes. “I saw you get up and leave in a rush. I wanted to see what was wrong.” She gave her a _look_. “Though I’m pretty sure I know already.”

25-year-old Solusod Koby was a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI, one of the youngest in years. She had shoulder-length, straight, somewhat messy light bubblegum pink hair, maple brown eyes, light tan skin, a cross-shaped scar above her right eye, round, purple glasses kept on her forehead, and a slender, curvaceous body; she was currently wearing a navy blue vest buttoned closed over a white oxford blouse and teal tie, navy blue dress pants, black chunky-heeled ankle boots, and a lime green bandana with white flower patterns was tied around her head, under the glasses.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Koby tried.

“Really?” Helmeppa said, raising an eyebrow before shaking her head. “You’re worried about _them_.”

27-year-old Morgan Helmeppa was a Supervisory Special Agent as well, and partner to Koby; the two had known each other since their time in the Academy, becoming friends within the first year, despite the major differences in their personalities. She had waist-length, straight golden blonde hair, cut in an oval-shape and held back by a barrette, dark brown eyes covered by an odd-looking black visor, a cleft chin, light tan skin, and a slender, model-esque body; she’s dressed in a sea foam green vest buttoned closed over a white oxford blouse, a violet suit skirt, a light brown belt—with a pouch on the back carrying her two kukri knives, black platform knee-high boots, a small white top hat, and black leather gloves.

Koby let out a rough sigh before looking around to make sure they were alone. “Well, of course I am!” She started pacing around in front of Helmeppa, the heels of her boots clacking with every step. “Of all the agents that could’ve been assigned to her, it _had_ to be Smoker and Tashigi!”

Helmeppa rolled her eyes. “You worry about her way too much, Koby.” She then turned to lean against a wall, watching Koby pace herself in circles. “I think, if she’s made it this far, she can, more than likely, take care of herself.”

“I know, I know.” Koby said, finally stopping to run a hand through her hair. “You’re right! I know that, but I can’t help but worry.” She smiled. “After all, I owe everything, _everything_ I’ve become, to Luffy.”

“You better not let anyone else hear you say that.” Helmeppa warned, though a small smile could be seen.

Koby crossed her arms, clutching tightly to her biceps. “You really think she’ll be okay, even with Smoker after her?”

“She better be, or I’m gonna have to disown that ungrateful brat.” A loud, gruff voice sounded from behind the two agents, startling them.

“Deputy Director Garp!” they both exclaimed, spinning to face the imposing figure.

Garp didn’t even blink an eye before looking at Koby. “I don’t want to hear you saying things like that, girl.”

“I know, sir, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be talking about—” Koby was cut off.

“No, no, not _that_.” Garp said, instantly dismissing Koby’s words. “I don’t want to hear you doubting Luffy.” Garp let out a laugh. “Now, she may be a complete and total idiot, but she’s strong and has always had the devil’s luck.” Garp tilted his head up, gazing at the ceiling. “I should know that better than anyone.”

Deputy Director Monkey D. Garp was a tall, tanned, broad-chested, muscular old man who’s bearded and had short, slightly spiky gray hair, ocean blue eyes, and a stitched scar curving around the side of his left eye; he’s dressed in a white double-breasted suit jacket, a dark blue dress shirt, an aquamarine tie, white suit pants, and white penny loafers. Only known to a few high-ranking personnel—as well as Koby and Helmeppa—Garp was actually Don Straw Hat’s grandfather, having raised her as a child. It’s actually how Garp came into contact with Koby (and Helmeppa); he overheard Koby telling her partner about Luffy and busted into their conversation. Koby had been scared that she’d be fired and thrown into jail, but relaxed after Garp told them of his own connection with Luffy. After that, Garp took the two of them “under his wing”, training them and turning the two of them into first-class agents; it was, mostly, how they rose up among the ranks so fast.

“I know, sir.” Koby said—felt like she’d been saying that a lot. “But Smoker and Tashigi are different. They’ve got a flawless track record.”

Garp was silent for a few minutes, deep in thought, before clapping his hands together, startling the two young agents. He’d decided it was time to let the two in on a little secret of his. “I think it’s about time I pay a visit to my granddaughter.” He smirked. “It’s been…about ten years since I last saw her. Stupid brat took off and didn’t even say goodbye.” He then looked at the confused Koby and Helmeppa. “You two will accompany me.” Unlike the entire FBI, Garp knew _exactly_ where Luffy’s home base was located, given that Fusha Town was his hometown as well. That, and Makino told him about it when he had visited Party’s one day after he lost track of Luffy. There was just never a need to use the information, until now, at least.

“Uhh…” was their only response.

* * *

**The Straw Hats’ Mansion (Lunch Time)**

_“SAAAAAANJIIIII!”_ Luffy whined out, head flat on the dining table as she stared at her chef. _“FOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!”_

“Cork it, Luffy.” Sanji said as she bustled around the kitchen, heels clicking in her wake. “The food will be ready when it’s ready.”

“Uhhhhh…” Luffy groaned out, slumping further in her seat.

“Luffy!” Nami complained, looking up from the map he was working on. “Groaning about it will not make Sanji work any faster!”

Luffy stuck her tongue out at the orange-haired man, blowing a quick raspberry, to which Nami just rolled his eyes.

Zoro let out a chuckle as she resumed tending to Kitetsu III.

“Luffy-sis!” Franki called out from her seat, tinkering with something. “Just think about it this way. The food will taste even more _supah_ if it takes longer.”

“Yeah! If Sanji takes longer, it means she’s putting more effort into it!” Choppa said, trying to cheer the ravenette up.

“I guess.” Luffy muttered, drawing nonsensical figures on the table.

It was a lazy day for the Straw Hat Family, everyone either lounging around the Mansion or out doing their own thing—Usopp, in particular, was still investigating the attacks and who might be behind them, with the help of her gang. Besides that, all of the Straw Hats’ businesses were in order and nothing else needed to be done. Days like these weren’t Luffy’s favorites, as she was a person who always had to be _doing_ something. She wished something exciting would happen…

…how she’d regret those words.

Just as Luffy was about to complain once again, there was a loud _BANG_ that came from the direction of the front doors; everyone stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of the foyer, wondering who it could be, since they weren’t expecting guests. Just as Franki was about to get up and answer it, though, there was one more _BANG_ before a loud explosion sounded and the doors were sent flying; the Straw Hats could only watch as they flew past them into the formal living room. No one moved, too shocked to do so.

* * *

“Huh, nice place.” Garp said, looking around the foyer as the dust cleared. “Looks like that brat has actually done well for herself.”

“Garp, sir,” Koby spoke up from behind him. “Was it necessary to break down the doors?”

“Break them down?” Helmeppa asked, eyebrow raised in disbelief. “He sent those things _flying_.”

“Serves her right,” was the only thing Garp said as they moved deeper into the Mansion. “Now, where would she be?” That’s when they smelled food. “Ah, of course. The kitchen.” Rubbing his hands together, he started laughing.

* * *

“Are we under attack?!” Choppa cried out, running around in circles before diving behind Luffy’s chair.

“I don’t think so.” Zoro said, sheathing her katana. “No one is stupid enough to attack us in our own home.” She paused in thought before adding, “Nor know where it even _is_.”

“Then what the hell was that?!” Franki asked, eyes still wide. “They sent the doors _supah_ flying!” She groaned. “Yet _another_ thing to fix. Why does everyone feel the need to destroy my masterpiece? I worked hard on this house, dammit!"

No one had any answers for her, giving the grieving cyborg a shrug and consoling pat.

Luffy had this really bad feeling, though she didn’t know why, but the feeling was somewhat familiar.

“What should we do?” Nami asked calmly, folding up his map.

Just as Luffy was about to say something, though, a loud laugh came from somewhere just outside the kitchen; she recognized that laughter—she had _nightmares_ about that laughter, and the person it belonged to. At hearing that, Luffy froze, tensing up as her eyes widened comically.

“Luffy?” Zoro asked, seeing how tense the girl had become. “What is it?”

“No, it can’t be.” Luffy muttered out, hands clenched and unclenching on the table. “He can’t be here. Why is he _here?!”_

“Who, Luffy?” Nami asked, starting to worry; Luffy usually didn't freak out like this. “Who is it?”

“Ah, here it is!” a gruff voice said from outside the kitchen before a large form became visible in the doorway.

Luffy now resembled a deer-in-headlights while Zoro and Nami exchanged perplexed looks—that person looked…familiar, for some reason.

The man in the doorway looked around, cataloguing everything and everyone, before his eyes rested on the very-still figure of Luffy, a wide smile starting to spread across his face. “There you are!”

“AHHH!” Luffy screamed, finally able to move again as she sprung out of her seat. “No! NOO!”

Before she could run, though, the man moved, darting over to where Luffy was faster than the eye could follow, and slammed his fist into Luffy’s head.

“OW!” Luffy yelped as she was slammed to the floor, holding her hands protectively over her head. “Ow, ow, _ow!”_

“What’s the matter?” Sanji asked, confused, walking around the island. “Why does it hurt so much? You’re made of rubber!”

“That’s because there’s no defense against a Fist of Love.” The man said, crossing his arms. “You’ve been getting into a lot of trouble, haven’t you, Luffy?”

Peeking up at the man she hadn’t seen in ten years, Luffy ground out, “Hi, Grandpa.”

Everyone, minus Zoro and Nami, looked down at Luffy before up at the mystery man. _“Eh?!?!”_

Zoro and Nami, on the other hand, were nodding; now they remembered why he seemed so familiar. They’d met this man once before, and that one meeting was more than enough. The question was, why was he here? Luffy hadn’t heard from or seen this man in about ten years, not since she started her Family.

“What are you doing here, Gramps?” Luffy voiced their question, still rubbing her head.

“Can’t a man come visit his granddaughter?” Garp said, eyebrow raised. “I’d visit your sister, but Whitebeard would take offense to that.”

“It’s been ten years, though.” Luffy said, the throbbing in her head finally dying down; those stupid punches _still_ hurt like hell. “I haven’t heard from you _once_ , so why are you here now?”

Sanji, who was back to working on the food, then noticed something shiny and gold clipped onto Luffy’s grandfather’s belt; if she wasn’t mistaken, it looked like a…

“Deputy Director Garp!” someone from outside the kitchen yelled. “Where did you go?”

“I think he went this way, Koby,” another voice sounded.

“Koby?” Luffy questioned, looking at her grandfather in question.

“Wait a minute,” Franki said, looking over at Luffy. “Did that voice just say “Deputy Director”?”

Luffy looked over at Franki before nodding.

“As in…”

“Deputy Director of the FBI, yes.” Nami answered, calm as could be.

_“EH?!”_

“How—”

“There you are,” said a voice from the doorway. “We thought we lost…” The voice trailed off as the voice’s owner caught sight of Luffy.

Luffy cocked her head to the side ‘cause that pink hair looked really familiar. Wait… “Koby?”

“Koby?!” Nami exclaimed, both he and Zoro staring at the young woman they hadn't seen in ten years with surprised eyes.

“Uh, yeah. It’s me.” Koby said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. “Good to see you again, Luffy, Zoro, Nami.”

“Huh?” Chopper asked, looking between the four. “You guys know her?”

“Yeah,” Luffy said, finally getting up off the floor. “We met her when I first started the Family. Helped her get out of a…bad situation and took her to the FBI!”

“She’s an agent?!”

“Are you?” Zoro asked curiously, still sitting in her seat.

Koby nodded, still a bit bashful. “I am.” She looked over at Luffy, who was still shying away from her grandfather. “And it was all thanks to Luffy.”

“Huh?” Luffy said, pausing and looking up.

“I’m here for Koby, Luffy.” Garp said, grabbing the collar of Luffy’s shirt as she continued to edge away and pulled her back. “She was worried.”

“Though she has no reason to be,” said the blonde person standing next to Koby as she gave Luffy a once-over. “So you’re the infamous Straw Hat Luffy, huh?”

Scratching her head, Luffy shrugged. “I guess.” Then she tilted her head in question. “Who are you?”

“This is Helmeppa.” Koby said. “She’s my partner.”

“Nice to meet ya!” Luffy said with a wide smile. “Any friend of Koby’s is a friend of mine!” Then Luffy turned to look at Koby. “Why are you worried, Koby? I’m fine.”

“Uh…” Koby said before looking over at Garp.

“Go ahead and tell her.” Garp said, plopping down in Luffy’s vacated seat. “She’ll find out soon enough.” Leaning back, he added, “I’ll deal with Sengoku if he somehow finds out.”

“Find out what?” Luffy questioned, looking between the two.

“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” Koby asked instead.

Luffy shrugged. “Sure.” Looking at Zoro, she said, “I’ll be in the solarium.” Zoro nodded then Luffy looked over at Sanji. “Save me some food!”

“Got it.” Sanji said, waving her off.

“Come on!” Luffy called, walking through the doorway into the solarium with Koby in tow; once in, Luffy sat down on a sofa while Koby took the chair across from her. “So, what’s up?”

“Well,” Koby said, nervously fiddling with her fingers. “Some new agents have been assigned to investigate you, Luffy.”

Tilting her head, she asked, “So? The FBI are always investigating us. Why are you so worried?”

“The Director decided to assign specific teams to three separate Families.” Koby said, leaning her elbows on her knees. “You’re one of them.”

“Okay?” Luffy said, still not getting it.

“The team that got assigned to you, more specifically the two lead agents, are different than what you’ve been dealing with so far.” Koby explained. “These two agents are…tenacious.”

“Tena…what?” Luffy asked, eyes wide and clueless.

Koby cracked a small smile at that because Luffy was still Luffy, even after all these years. “Tenacious. It means they don’t give up easily.” Winding her fingers together, she said, “They’ll look into everything that’s even remotely connected to you to try and find something that'll bring you down.”

Luffy pursed her lips in thought. “Who are these agents?”

“S.A.C. Smoker and A.S.A.C. Tashigi.” Koby answered. “They have a flawless track record.”

“Hmm.” Luffy said with a thoughtful nod before her usual wide smile spread across her face. “Shishishi. Don’t worry about it, Koby!”

Koby’s jaw dropped. “But—”

“We’re really careful in everything we do.” Luffy said in a lowered voice before laughing again. “But thanks for the heads-up!”

“I—”

“Oh, now that you’re here, there’s something I wanna ask you.” Luffy said, serious once more.

“Okay.” Koby said, kind of thrown off by Luffy’s erratically changing moods.

“Have you heard of the attacks going on recently?” Luffy asked.

“Um, yeah. I think so.” Koby said, confused. “Some of your territories have been hit, right?”

Luffy nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.” She folded her hands together. “You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but we have…somewhat of a description on the attackers, and I want to know if you recognize it.”

“Luffy…” Koby said, uncertain.

“Just take a look at it.” Luffy pleaded. “If you can’t say anything, you don’t have to.” Her frown deepened as her hands clenched. “Please, Koby.”

She sighed and nodded; Luffy would never ask something like this unless it was _really_ important.

Luffy smiled in relief. “Thanks, Koby.” Turning to face the kitchen, Luffy called out, “Nami!”

“What is it, Luffy?” he shouted back a second later.

“Can you bring me the piece of paper with the tattoo drawing on it?” she yelled back.

There was a slight pause before he answered, “Yeah, give me a minute.”

“Is this really that important?” Koby asked.

Eyes shaded by the brim of her straw hat, Luffy nodded. “These people are attacking businesses and people in _my_ territories.” Her hands clenched tighter. “I promised to keep them safe and then _this_ happens.”

Koby fell silent again, but still found herself amazed by how different Luffy was from your standard definition of a Mob Don. It reminded the young woman yet again of why she still trusted and respected Luffy, why she still considered the ravenette her friend, even though they stood on different sides of the law. Luffy was truly one-of-a-kind.

A few moments later, Nami came walking in, a piece of paper clutched in his hand. “Here you are, Luffy.”

“Thanks.” Luffy said with a smile as she grabbed it, looking at it before handing it over to Koby. “Just let me know if there’s anything you can tell me.”

Nami sat down on the sofa arm, curious.

The second Koby laid eyes on the kanji printed on the paper, her eyes widened in shock. “Oh no.”

“What?” Luffy asked, leaning forward. “Do you recognize it?”

Looking up, she nodded. “This is really bad, Luffy. Like, really, _really_ bad.”

“Who is it?” Nami asked, leaning forward as well.

Folding up the paper, she handed it back to Luffy. “These tattoos are found on the members of only one Mob Family.” She swallowed. “The Hundred Beast Family, led by Don Beast Kaido.”

 _“Kaido!?”_ Nami exclaimed, looking down at Luffy then back at Koby. “You mean Kaido, one of the Four Capo di Capi Re, _that_ Kaido!?”

Koby just nodded.

“This is so not good.” Nami said, clenching his hands. “Why would _he_ be attacking us, though?” Biting his lip, he shook his head. “This makes no sense.”

“Thanks for telling us that, Koby.” Luffy suddenly said, her wide smile spreading across her face once more. “That’s all we needed to know.” She hopped up from the couch, more energetic than usual. “I’m hungry. SANJI!!!” And then she ran off to the kitchen.

Koby just stared after her in shock before laughing. “She hasn't changed a bit, has she?” She stood.

Nami smiled fondly before shaking his head. “Nope.” He got up as well, orange-cased smartphone in hand since Usopp now needed to be updated. “And I hope she never does.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, was that any good? I'd love to have y'alls opinion! Any suggestions or things you'd like me to add; I'll listen to anything you have to say. Until next time...


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! Next chapter and the plot is getting back on track! I hope the last chapter made sense. As for the plot line, its gonna kinda follow the Punk Hazard/Dressrosa arcs, but not really? Kinda just the overall main plot line. Like kidnapping Caesar Clown to get Doflamingo in trouble with Kaido. That's the overall thing I'm going with, but the smaller details will be different. Just read the fic and you'll see what I'm going on about! Again, I apologize for long descriptions, but there aren't that many in this chapter! Just felt I should add that. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Oh and if you see ". . ." in the fic by itself, I'm basically using those as stand-ins for "stunned silence". It'd get kinda annoying to continually write that, so I'm using ". . ." instead!

**Day of the Meeting**

“…and that’s all Usopp could find out about Kaido.” Nami said to Luffy, frustrated, as the two of them made their way down the stairs to the Thousand Sunny entrance. “Not even Vivi or Nojiko could dig up much.” He blew out a stream of annoyed air. “Even _Perona_ struck out!”

“That sucks.” Luffy said, pouting, as she pushed the final door open before they entered the bar.

It’s about eight o’clock at night and both the bar and gambling hall were already mostly full, which was exactly what the Straw Hats were counting on; this way, when the other Don arrived, she wouldn’t stick out as much. Luffy’s dressed in a red oxford blouse, the top two buttons left undone and sleeves rolled up, underneath a black waistcoat, a black tube skirt, black flip-flop straw sandals, and, of course, her straw hat. Nami’s wearing a black trench coat over a cyan blue dress shirt, the top few buttons left undone, black dress pants, his black berry-buckle belt with the Clima-Tact sheathed on the right side, and black dress shoes.

“The guy’s good at covering his tracks, I’ll give him that much.” Nami said as he hung up his coat before following Luffy over to the bar, where both Zoro and Sanji were sitting and, well, arguing.

“What was that, you sad excuse for a cook?” Zoro growled out, her hand already resting on Shusui.

“You heard what I said, moss head!” Sanji yelled back, already in a defensive stance. “What, are you losing your hearing now too?!”

Luffy and Nami exchanged exasperated looks as everyone else in the bar looked warily at the two arguing, now fighting, Straw Hats. This wasn't the first time a fight had broken out between the two in the bar, but the patrons would rather not see it again; the last fight had destroyed the bar and it took a month to get it all repaired. Nami, muttering under his breath about _“morons”_ and _“stupidity”_ , stalked over to the two women before bashing them both over the head with his Clima-Tact, ending their short fight immediately.

“Shishishishi.” Luffy laughed as she sat down at the bar, next to the other two, before smiling at the bartender. “Hey, Vi!”

“Hello, Don Luffy.” Vi said, passing the ravenette her usual drink. “How are you?”

33-year-old Tontatta “Vi” Violo was a lean, muscular, lightly-tanned man that had wavy jet black hair that reached his shoulders with a lock hanging over his forehead on the left side and copper brown eyes. He’s in a white V-neck t-shirt trimmed in violet with the letters _TS_ (in violet) covering the back and dark denim jeans tucked messily into purple Doc Martens; a red rose was resting behind his right ear and tucked into a holster, clipped to the back of the jeans, was a Beretta M9.

He’s employed by the Straw Hat Family as the Thousand Sunny’s co-Manager—in-charge when Robin’s indisposed—as well as running the burlesque/brothel portion, taking care of all the ladies employed there—the “Pimp”, so-to-speak; he also specialized in assassination, taking jobs when they came up, which had earned him the epithet “Ultraviolet”. He’s an expert in Taekwondo, a great Flamenco dancer, and had eaten the Glare-Glare Fruit—which allowed him to form “goggles” via his fingers, which he could use to see through everything (akin to X-ray vision) and read the minds of others, as well as allow others to see into his memories in return, could view 200 kilometers around himself as a bird-eye’s view, and could also form tears from inside of his eyes and manipulate them into large shapes for attacking.

“Great!” Luffy called out, smile wide as usual, before turning her attention to her green-haired Underboss. “Zoro!”

“What?” Zoro grumped back, rubbing her head from Nami’s hit; she’s wearing a sky blue oxford blouse, top few buttons left undone, under a black waistcoat, a black suit skirt that reached mid-thigh, black stilettos, and her three katanas bundled over her right hip.

“Why were Zoro and Sanji fighting?” Luffy asked curiously, tilting her head to the side.

“Because she’s an idiot, that’s why.” Zoro said, automatically ducking when a kick came at her.

“What was that, cyclops?!” Sanji shouted, biting down angrily on her cigarette; she’s wearing a golden orange oxford blouse under a black/gray vertical-striped waistcoat, a white ribbon tied around her collar in a bow, a black suit skirt with a double eyelet-studded dark gray belt threaded through the belt loops and silver chain hanging from her left side, black stockings held up by suspenders, and black platform pumps.

“I _said_ ,” Zoro bit out, eye narrowing, “you’re an idiot!”

“Knock it off!” Nami yelled, smacking them once more with his weapon, sending them to the ground. “We don’t have time for your stupid fights!”

“Shishishi.” Luffy laughed at the sight, grabbing her drink.

“Luffy!” Usopp called in greeting as she and Choppa left the gambling hall, making their way over. “Have we missed anything?”

“Nope.” Luffy said, spinning around on the bar stool. “Nami and I just got here, and the other Don hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Where’s Franki?” Choppa asked, looking around; she’s dressed in a black blazer over an olive green oxford blouse and black ribbon tied around her collar in a bow, a black ruffled miniskirt, black kitten heels, and her usual hat.

“Franki’s out patrolling some of our territories with her gang.” Luffy said, finishing the rest of her drink in one gulp.

“Making sure our territories are safe?” Usopp guessed, waving at Vi; she’s wearing a yellow-orange oxford blouse, top button left undone, under a gray waistcoat, a black pencil skirt, black pumps, a black hat with a wide brim and short, domed top, and kept in holsters attached to black bands circling either thigh were Ginga and Pachinko.

“Correct.” Nami answered this time, sitting down on Luffy’s other side, having returned his weapon to his belt, before smiling at Vi when he placed down a glass filled with whiskey. “Thanks. I need this.” He downed the whole thing in one go.

“Nervous?” Vi asked, automatically pouring him another drink.

“Stressed.” Nami corrected, tapping his fingers restlessly on the countertop.

“What’s wrong, Nami?” Choppa asked, concerned.

“This whole Kaido thing.” Nami said, grabbing the drink as soon as it was set down, though sipping this one slower. “I just can’t believe we know next to _nothing_ about him or his Family!” He rubbed his eyes in frustration. “The only thing we know about for sure are those damn tattoos.”

“Don’t worry, Nami.” Luffy said, sending him a wide smile. “We’ll figure everything out! It’ll be okay.”

Nami just shook his head. “I don't know, Luffy. We’ve never dealt with something like this before.”

“Which is why we’re in an alliance.” Luffy said, pressing her feet together on her stool. “We won’t be doing this alone.”

“She’s right.” Zoro answered, back to sitting on her stool, next to Luffy. “We have a greater chance of getting through all of this now that we have the Heart Family working with us.”

Nami blew out a breath, taking another sip. “I know. Everything will work out.” _I hope,_ he added mentally.

“Shishishi.” Luffy laughed. “That’s the spirit!”

* * *

**With Robin (up in his shop)**

Hearing the door to his shop open and close, Robin—wearing a peach dress shirt with large lapels and top few buttons left undone, black jeans, and black ankle boots—looked up from his book and smiled in greeting. “Don Trafalgar, Mr. Lami. I’m glad you were able to find my shop.”

Law’s dressed in a yellow pinstriped oxford blouse with the top two buttons left undone and sleeves rolled up to her elbows—showing off black tattoos identical to the ones found on Shachi and Penguin on her forearms—black slim dress pants, black stilettos, her usual hat, and had her nodachi resting against her shoulder. Lami’s wearing a white dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up and top button left undone, under a black waistcoat, a sky blue tie, black dress pants, a black belt, and black dress boots with a slight heel; his head was topped by a black fedora decorated with a sky blue band and kept in holsters at either hip were his guns while his twin wakizashi were kept on his back, underneath his top with the hilts facing downwards, by a specialized holster.

“Mr. Nico- _ya_.” Law said in greeting, smiling slightly as she glanced around. “This is a nice shop you have.”

Lami was already poking around a little bit, picking up the little trinkets with an interested look on his face. “How fascinating. You can almost see the history in these pieces.”

“Thank you very much.” Robin said with a proud little smile, marking his place in his book before getting up, pulling the key from his pocket. “If you two would follow me. My Don is already waiting downstairs.”

Law nodded as she followed behind the black-haired man—once she yanked Lami away from the antiques, that was.

Robin looked over his shoulder after unlocking the door, pulling it open and gesturing to it with a sweep of his hand. “Just follow the stairs down and open the door when you get to the bottom. I’m sure you will be able to find the others pretty easily.” The smirk was not missed.

“Thank you, Nico- _ya_.” Law said, inclining her head slightly before making her way downstairs.

“Thanks a lot, Robin!” Lami said sunnily to Robin before starting to follow behind his sister, but then paused and poked his head back up. “I’ll definitely be back to browse around your store more.” Another quick smile and wave before Lami was gone down the stairs.

Robin smiled, liking the sound of that, before re-locking the door and making his way back to his seat, pulling out his dark purple-encased smartphone before sending a quick text to Nami and then opening his book once more.

* * *

Nami looked up from his phone, getting Luffy’s attention. “Don Trafalgar is on her way down.”

“Ooo.” Luffy said, still spinning around in her stool. “Kay!”

“Would you stop spinning around like an idiot!” Nami yelled, hitting her over the head.

Luffy yelped before grabbing her head, pouting at the orange-haired man. “Nami! Why’d you hit me?”

“Because you’re acting like an idiot!” Nami said, smacking her again for good measure. “That’s why!”

“Neh!” Luffy said, diving behind the sitting-Zoro. “Zoro! Make him stop!”

“What the hell makes you think I’d be able to make that demon stop?” Zoro drawled out, Wadō already out of her scabbard and blocking a kick that would’ve done serious damage to her head if it had connected.

“Don’t you dare insult Nami- _san_ , stupid asshole!” Sanji growled out, sending another kick at Zoro.

“Okay, I’ll insult you instead, damn love-cook!” Zoro yelled back, blocking another kick before slicing down at Sanji.

Luffy, who was now sitting _on top_ of the bar’s counter, clapped her hands and laughed, finding everything very amusing.

“Ah!” Usopp yelled, diving underneath the bar just before a kick came a little too close for comfort.

“Stop fighting!” Choppa begged the two women, but yelped and ducked when a blade came slashing over her head.

“Choppa!” Luffy called out, stretching her arm out to grab the doctor by her blazer collar before pulling her over to where she’s sitting.

“Ahhh!” Choppa yelled as she was reeled in too quickly, slamming into Luffy and sending them both to the ground behind the bar with a loud _CRASH_.

 _“Oof!”_ Luffy called out, getting the wind knocked out of her since Choppa landed on top of her.

Vi blinked slightly when he suddenly had people next to him behind the bar before merely moving out of the line of fire, by now already used to the way the Straw Hats acted when around each other; he always found some weird comfort in their silly ways, feeling the love behind the violent-looking actions.

“Ah!” Choppa yelled out again, hopping off of Luffy before running around in panicked circles. “Doctor! Luffy’s hurt! We need a doctor!”

This was the scene the Trafalgar D. Water siblings stumbled onto as soon as they entered the Thousand Sunny.

Nami growled underneath his breath and got up, heading straight over to the dueling idiots before punching them both over the heads, sending them so hard to the ground that they created slight craters. _“STOP FIGHTING YOU FUCKIN’ MORONS!”_

“Scary.” Usopp whimpered, still hiding underneath the bar.

“Nami- _san_ is so amazing when he hits me!” Sanji rasped out before she let her head fall back onto the ground.

“Fuckin’ hell!” Zoro growled out, rubbing her head, though in no better shape than Sanji.

“Doctor!” Choppa yelled, panicking even worse when she saw the other two hurt. “We need—”

 _“YOU’RE THE DOCTOR!”_ Nami screamed at Choppa, freezing her at once. “Stop running around like a chicken with its head cut off and treat these stupid idiots!”

“Right!” Choppa exclaimed, turning into a completely different person as she hopped over the bar and crouched beside Sanji, knowing that Luffy was unharmed, for obvious reasons.

“Is this a bad time?” Law asked the orange-haired man as she and Lami cautiously approached the chaos.

Nami was just about to snap again when he realized who it was. “Don Trafalgar!” Smoothing his hair back and calming slightly, he smiled. “No, we’re…fine.”

“Fine?” Lami questioned, disbelief and humor battling in his tone as he glanced down and around. “You sure have a strange definition of _“fine”_ , Mr. Nami.”

Law, too, looked at the scene they walked in on with an eyebrow raised. “I’m afraid to ask, but is this normal for you?”

Nami let out a sigh, slumping some. “Unfortunately, yes.” He walked over to the bar and peered behind it, seeing Luffy sitting and rocking back and forth to some imaginary tune in her head. “Luffy! Don Trafalgar is here.”

Luffy automatically popped up. “She is?” When she spotted the older Don and her Underboss, her smile got wider. “Lami! Traffy! You’re here! Hi!”

Law’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Traffy?” Lami laughed at the nickname, loving the perplexed expression that graced his sister’s face.

Usopp, seeing as the danger was over, crawled out from under the bar before looking over at the bemused Law, having heard the conversation. “Luffy sometimes likes giving people nicknames if she has trouble pronouncing their names.” She contemplated something before adding, “Or if she really takes a liking to someone.”

Luffy, smile still wide, planted a hand on the bar before vaulting over it, landing gracefully next to Usopp. “When did you get here?”

“Just a few minutes ago.” Law answered, tapping her fingers on her nodachi’s scabbard.

Luffy smiled at that before grabbing onto Law’s arm and pulling. “Come have a drink, Traffy!”

“Will they be okay?” Law asked, glancing down at Zoro and Sanji, Choppa now moving over to check on the swordswoman.

Lami also looked a little concerned at their state. “They don’t look too good.”

“Yeah, they’ll be fine.” Luffy answered dismissively, already calling Vi over.

“This happens at _least_ ten times a day.” Usopp explained when she saw Law and Lami’s bewildered expressions. “Zoro and Sanji…they don’t exactly get along.” Then she thought it over. “Or they do and they just enjoy heckling each other and fighting. We don’t really know.”

“No, I hate her guts.” Zoro answered, sitting up and pushing Choppa off of her.

“Zoro!” Choppa complained, fighting back against her. “Let me look! You could have a concussion.”

“Nah.” Sanji said, already lighting another cigarette. “Her head’s too thick for that.”

 _“What’d you say, curlybrow?!”_ Zoro growled, narrowing her eye at Sanji.

“Don’t you two start!” Nami yelled at them, narrowing his own eyes.

“Of course, Nami- _san_!” Sanji said, already standing as she noodle-danced over to her.

Zoro let out a huff before pushing herself off of the floor and sitting down beside Luffy, as usual. Vi smiled as he walked over to them once more, but froze for a second when he spotted Law and Lami, eyes widening slightly in recognition. Before anyone could notice, though, he already had his smiled plastered back on and greeted Luffy once again.

“Something else to drink, Don?” Vi asked, keeping his eyes solely on Luffy.

“Yes!” Luffy called out, smiling still. “Something sweet.”

Vi laughed; her moods were so infectious. “Of course.”

Law, on the other hand, exchanged a confused look with Lami as they both studied Vi intently. There was something…familiar about him that they couldn’t quite place. Did they know him from somewhere?

“Here you are.” Vi said, placing a daiquiri in front of Luffy, before building up the courage to face the siblings. “Can I get you anything?”

Law, with her head tilted, studied him for a few seconds before finally giving up; it’ll come to her later. “Uh, vodka and tonic.”

Lami, too, gave up trying to place him and smiled before pointing at Luffy’s drink. “Same thing she’s having.”

“Coming right up.” Vi said, turning around to mix said drinks.

“So, this is the Thousand Sunny, huh?” Law said, looking around the busy bar and gambling hall. “This place is pretty popular.”

“I like the atmosphere.” Lami commented, accepting the daiquiri from Vi with a smile and nod. “Such an upbeat feeling in the air. Makes you happier just by coming in.”

“Yeah, it’s great!” Luffy called out, glancing around proudly. “I think it’s one of Robin’s greatest ideas.”

“I won’t disagree with that.” Nami said, placing a hand on Luffy’s shoulder. “But, Luffy, since we’re all here, why don’t we go somewhere quieter to talk?”

“Let’s go!” Luffy automatically said, hopping off of her stool to lead the way over to the closed off room, Zoro and Nami right behind her.

Once the door was closed and the two Dons were settled in their seats at either end of the table with their Underbosses (and Nami) behind them, they got down to business.

“I’ll get straight to the point.” Law said folding her arms on the table. “Did you come up with anything? Shachi- _ya_ , unfortunately, found very little.” She looked understandably upset and frustrated.

So she was startled when the younger Don started rocking back and forth with a large smile on her face. “We know who’s doing this.”

**. . .**

“You _do?!”_ Lami exclaimed, eyes wide.

“Yup!” Luffy said proudly.

“Well, who is it?” Law asked, very impressed.

“Those tattoos belong to members of the Hundred Beast Family, led by Don Beast Kaido.” Luffy stated.

**. . .**

_“KAIDO?!?!”_ both Trafalgar D. Water siblings shouted, their eyes wide, staring at the Straw Hats in shock.

“Why would he be doing that?” Law questioned, surprised. “Have any of us done anything to upset him?”

Luffy, Zoro, and Nami all shook their heads _no_.

“This makes no sense then.” Law murmured, resting her chin in her palm, but then blinked as something occurred to her. “Wait a minute. Straw Hat- _ya_ ,” Luffy looked over at her, “how did you even know about Kaido?”

“The FBI told us.” Luffy stated cheerfully, smile wide.

**. . .**

_“The FBI?!?!”_ the siblings exclaimed, eyes wide, once again, with shock.

“Why were you talking to the _feds?”_ Lami questioned, completely lost, because whatever answer he was expecting, it definitely wasn’t _that_.

“They came over.” Luffy said, blinking innocently.

“Came over?” Law questioned, bemused.

“Well, uninvited.” Luffy added, like that would make a difference. “Grandpa broke down our front door.” Luffy pouted at that. “Franki didn’t like that.”

Law was almost afraid to ask. “Your grandfather’s in the FBI?”

Nami saw this was going downhill fast. “Yes, he is.” The Don and her Underboss looked up at him expectantly and he winced before answering their unvoiced question. “Deputy Director Monkey D. Garp.”

There was complete silence for a good five minutes, neither quite knowing what to say.

“Let me get this straight,” Law finally said, resting her elbows on the table as she looked at Luffy. “Your _grandfather_ is the Deputy Director of the FBI.” Luffy nodded in confirmation. “As in, the second-in-command of the _whole_ FBI.”

“Yup!” Luffy said with another nod.

“Then how are you…” Lami trailed off, not quite knowing how to word his question.

Luffy tilted her head in confusion.

“I think he wants to know why you’re a Don when your grandfather’s in the FBI.” Zoro told Luffy.

“Oohhh.” Luffy said in understanding before looking at Lami. “Easy, I didn’t wanna become a Fed, so I became a Don!”

Law and Lami exchanged confused looks at that.

“Okay…” Lami finally said slowly.

“It makes sense to her.” Zoro said to the two with a shrug.

“So your grandfather told you about Kaido?” Law questioned, now wanting to get the meeting back on track.

“Nope.” Luffy said, completely missing the confused looks on the others faces.

“Uh, Luffy, I think you better explain.” Nami said, nudging her.

“Oh…” Luffy said in understanding. “Well, my friend Koby told me!”

“Koby?” Law asked.

“She’s an agent.” Luffy explained. “She was over to warn us about something, so I took the chance to ask her about the tattoos.”

“And she just told you?” Lami asked this time, disbelieving.

“Yeah.” Luffy said with a shrug.

“You’re a very peculiar individual, Straw Hat- _ya_ ,” Law said, shaking her head in bemusement.

“Shishishishi!”

“Problem is,” Nami said, trying to steer the meeting back on course, “we’ve tried everything we could to get information on Kaido, but this guy is good. He covers his tracks.” He sighed. “We couldn’t get _anything_.”

“Do you know _why_ Kaido’s family is called the “Hundred Beast” Family?” Law suddenly asked, looking around, while Lami just bit his lip, but when she got _no_ ’s in return, she continued. “It’s because a big portion of his Family is made up of Zoan-class Devil Fruit users.”

“And?” Luffy asked, sensing that Law’s going somewhere with this.

“Well, these Devil Fruits they’ve eaten are…different.” Law said, resting her chin on the back of her hands. “They aren’t real Devil Fruits.”

“What?” Zoro asked, confused. “Then how—” She was cut off.

“They’re _artificial_ Devil Fruits.” Law informed. “Man-made.”

“Artificial Devil Fruits?” Nami asked, eyes wide. “Those _exist?!”_

“Only for the Zoan-class, but yes, they do.” Law said, nodding.

“How?” Nami questioned.

“They can only be created by one man.” Law said, looking at the trio across the table. “A scientist named Caesar Clown.”

“I’ve heard of him.” Nami said thoughtfully. “He’s wanted by the World Government. I can’t remember for what, though.”

“Yes.” Law said, nodding. “And he works for a man known only as Joker, but…” Law stopped, exchanging looks with Lami, seeming to think over something.

“But?” Luffy questioned, head tilted to the side, before she realized something. “You know who Joker really is, don't you?”

That got her surprised looks, even from Zoro and Nami.

“Yes, I do.” Law said, looking at Luffy in a new light, though still seemed hesitant to say who.

Lami was also stunned that Luffy understood that, not seeing how she came to that conclusion from the few words Law had spoken.

“You can tell us.” Luffy said, leaning on the table. “We need to know this, right?”

Law nodded, still thrown off on how perceptive Luffy’s being. “We do.” She breathed out and, after one last look at her Underboss, she stated, “Joker’s real identity is Don Quixote Doflamingo, one of the Seven Condottieros and Don of the Donquixote Family.”

**. . .**

**. . .**

“Wow.” Nami finally said, shaking his head slowly, too stunned to do anything else. “I didn’t see _that_ coming.”

“Most people don’t.” Lami offered, though gave Luffy another considering glance, since it seemed _she_ just _knew_.

“So, Doflamingo is…” Nami trailed off, not sure how to word it.

“Yes, he’s working for Kaido by supplying him with the artificial Devil Fruits made by Caesar Clown.” Law confirmed, rubbing her arms; she hated talking about that oversized bird. Lami agreed completely, laying a comforting hand on his sister’s shoulder and squeezing it lightly.

“Not that that isn't interesting, but why tell us this?” Zoro questioned, leaning her right arm on her katanas. “Does this connect to Kaido somehow?”

“Well, this is something I’ve been thinking over for awhile now, even before this all started.” Law said, folding her arms, though was grateful for Lami’s touch.

“What is?” Luffy asked.

“I have a plan that'll probably be able bring down Kaido.” Law informed.

“Probably?” Zoro asked, eye narrowed.

“It’s a multi-step plan.” Law explained. “We wouldn’t go straight **_at_** Kaido yet, but indirectly hurt him while placing the blame on someone else, therefore giving us the element of surprise when we **_do_** go after him directly.”

“What do we need to do first?” Luffy questioned, grin wide, already pumped up for action.

“It won’t be easy.” Lami commented, rubbing his forehead. “Actually, it’s probably bordering on insane.”

“Good thing we specialize in insane.” Nami muttered, shaking his head slowly, getting ready for the inevitable.

Placing her hands flat on the table, ignoring both her brother and Nami, Law blew out a breath. “We’re going to need to kidnap Caesar Clown.”

**. . .**

“We’re going to do _what_ now?!” Nami shouted, eyes wide and jaw dropped; he was wrong, he _wasn’t_ prepared for that.

“Shishishishishi.” Luffy laughed, rocking back and forth in her seat with excitement. “Sounds like fun!”

* * *

After Law’s proclamation, they decided to adjourn the meeting so Luffy and her Family could think over Law’s proposal—though Luffy had already made up her mind the minute Law spoke. They agreed to meet back up in a few days to listen to the rest of Law’s plan, and decided to hold this meeting at the Straw Hat Mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seven Condottieros: seven Mob Family Dons who work as "rats" for the FBI, doing so for pardons, and when they sign on, they can only have one territory (they're the Warlords from One Piece)
> 
> Well, was that any good? I like where I'm going, but I'd love to have y'alls opinion! Any suggestions or things you'd like me to add; I'll listen to anything you have to say. Until next time...


	6. Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! Next chapter is here, so I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of the characters mentioned.
> 
> This is AU. Basically, all that remains are their names, faces, and a few personality traits, but other than that, the characters in this story are completely OOC.

**A Few Days Later…**

_DING DONG_

Heading over to the front door, Nami—wearing a dark purple dress shirt, top two buttons left undone and sleeves rolled up, gray jeans, and black ankle boots—unlocked it before welcoming in the Don, along with her Underboss, with a smile. “Good afternoon, Don Trafalgar, Lami.”

“Good afternoon, Nami- _ya_.” Law greeted in return. She’s wearing a sapphire blue short-sleeved blouse with the top two buttons left undone—the sleeve length showed off the twin tribal-style hearts tattooed, in black, on either deltoid—and light skinny jeans tucked into black high-heeled, strapped-up, mid-calf boots; on her head was her usual hat and her nodachi was resting against her shoulder.

“Hi, Nami!” Lami said cheerfully with a smile. He’s in a sky blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and top button left undone, white jeans, and black boots with a slight heel; his guns were holstered at either hip and his twin wakizashi were still sheathed where they always were, under his top on the back.

“If you’ll follow me, my Don is waiting.” Nami said, closing the door before leading the two siblings to the main office; as he passed by the kitchen, he yelled out, “Sanji! We’ll be in the office if you need anything!”

“Of course, Nami- _san_!” Sanji called back, and you could literally _hear_ the hearts in her voice.

He continued on down the hallway, the soft thudding of his footsteps the only sound, as the duo behind him looked around the spacious Mansion they’d found themselves in. They’d heard rumors of how well-built the Straw Hat home base was, everyone had, and it seemed the rumors were true. The place was _beautiful_.

“Is Black Leg- _ya_ the only other person here?” Law finally asked, curious.

Pausing at the weird reference to Sanji, Nami shook his head. “Franki’s upstairs in her room and Choppa is in the medical wing.”

After a few more moments, Nami finally reached the office’s double-doors and pushed them open before stepping inside the paneled room. “Luffy, Don Trafalgar has arrived.”

Sitting behind the desk, located right across from the doors and in front of a fireplace, was Luffy; she’s wearing a dark red short-sleeved blouse with the top few buttons left undone, a black jean miniskirt with a thick, white fluffy hemline, a dark yellow sash tied around her hips, her usual sandals, and, of course, her straw hat.

Standing at Luffy’s right, slightly behind her, would be Zoro; she’s dressed in a dark teal wide-strap vest top, a gold fringe mesh necklace, black leather pants tucked into black leather platform mid-calf boots, and bundled over her right hip were, per usual, her three katanas.

“Hello!” Luffy beamed as she waved to the other Don, bouncing up and down in her chair with unrestrained energy.

“Straw Hat- _ya_.” Law greeted with an amused smirk, moving forward to sit down in one of the two chairs situated in front of the desk as Lami came to a stop behind the chair.

“Well,” Nami said as he moved to stand on Luffy’s other side, “now that we’re all here, why don’t we get started?”

Law nodded before looking at the other Don, deciding to get straight to the point. “Have you made your decision?”

Luffy nodded, smile still playing on her lips.

“And?” Law asked, a little nervous—not that she’d _ever_ admit it.

“Sounds like fun!” Luffy exclaimed, shrugging before flashing a wider smile. “Of course I’m in!”

Law let out a slight breath of relief. “That’s good.” Clearing her throat, she said, “I guess I’ll tell you what I’ve come up with so far and we can go from there.”

“Sounds like a good starting point.” Nami said, resting his hand on the back of Luffy’s chair. The two Underbosses nodded in agreement.

“Okay.” Law said, gathering her thoughts. “Like I was saying the other day, Don Doflamingo’s underground alias is Joker.” Law paused. “And Joker’s most important business partner now is Don Kaido.” She leaned back in her chair. “The same Kaido who is currently attacking both of our territories.”

Luffy nodded in confirmation. “Yup! But how does that help us take him down?”

“I was getting to that, Straw Hat- _ya_.” Law said with a slight smirk before continuing. “In order to take him down, we have to weaken his forces.”

The three Straw Hats all nodded in understanding.

Law, seeing that they were following, continued on. “Kaido is currently buying a large amount of fruit from Joker right now.” She breathed out, holding in a shudder that thinking about the feathery bastard usually brought.

“Yes, the Zoan-type, man-made Devil Fruit…SMILE.” Lami stated for Law, hand squeezing the chair’s edge some.

“I still can’t believe it.” Nami said with a slow head-shake. “I mean, if such a thing exists, the number of Devil Fruit eaters will keep multiplying!”

“That’s right.” Law said, completely missing the freaked out face Nami made. “Since it’s man-made, however, it seems there are some risks involved.” She let out a sigh. “But, like I said before, a large amount of Kaido’s Family is made up of these Devil Fruit users.”

“Oooo.” Luffy said with stars in her eyes, already looking excited. A prospect of a good fight with a powerful foe always made Luffy excited.

“What we need to do is cut off their supply of Devil Fruits so they won’t multiply anymore.” Law said. “Once we do that, his forces, like I said earlier, will weaken and he’ll be easier to take out.”

“Which is where this scientist, Caesar Clown, comes in, right?” Zoro asked, looking over at Law.

“Correct.” Law replied with a nod. “He’s the one making the substance for the man-made Devil Fruit.” She paused, rubbing her eyes. “And that substance is known as SAD.”

“Is it that hard to make the SAD thing?” Luffy asked, giving Law a curious look.

“Have any of you ever heard of Vegapunk?” Law asked instead, looking at everyone in the room.

“Isn’t he some high-ranking scientist who works with the FBI or something?” Nami asked, looking around at everyone.

“Yes.” Law answered. “He also was once Caesar’s mentor, before Caesar was fired and put under arrest for running… _questionable_ experiments on FBI cadets.” Shaking her head, Law went on. “Anyway, before Caesar ran, he stole a lot of Vegapunk’s research materials and started putting the findings to much different uses than they were intended for.”

“SAD is one of them?” Nami clarified.

Law nodded while Lami explained further, “For making SAD, he just put Vegapunk’s discovery of “lineage factor” into practice.”

“So, to stop the man-made Devil Fruits from being produced, we need to take away the only man capable of making the substance needed for them.” Zoro summed up, looking over at Law, who nodded.

“But that’s only half of it.” Law said, crossing one long leg over the other. “Once we have Caesar, there’s no guarantee that’ll actually _stop_ the production.”

The trio looked questionably at Law, waiting for her to elaborate.

“There is a factory manufacturing SMILEs somewhere in Dressrosa—” Law said, but was interrupted by Luffy.

“Where’s Dressrosa?” Luffy asked, thinking that name sounded really familiar for some reason.

“Dressrosa is a major city located in the New World District.” Law explained. “It’s also Doflamingo’s one-allotted territory.” The others nodded, so Law went on. “We find that factory, and once it’s located, we need to destroy it. That way there will be absolutely no way to make SMILE and Kaido’s forces won’t continue to strengthen as a result.”

“Okay.” Everyone said with comprehension.

“However,” everyone looked back over at Law, “from what I could gather, Kaido’s a professional businessman. I’m sure he’ll retaliate.”

“Which is why you’re roping Doflamingo into this.” Zoro said, finally understanding.

“Right.” Law answered. “With Kaido so focused on Doflamingo, he won’t waste his time worrying about what we’re doing.” Blowing out a breath, she added, “And that’s when we’ll launch our own attack.”

“Any idea what that’ll be?” Nami asked, a tad worried.

Law shrugged. “A few ideas, but nothing solid.”

“We’re thinking too far ahead.” Luffy suddenly said, leaning back in her chair.

“What do you mean?” Law asked, eyebrow raised.

“Well, we can’t do much until we’ve successfully kidnapped Caesar, right?” Luffy asked, and was met with astonished nods. “So why don’t we focus on getting that done before figuring out how to attack Kaido.”

Though that’s a good point, it just sounded weird coming from Luffy’s mouth. She could be oddly observant and thoughtful when she wanted to be.

“Don Straw Hat’s right.” Lami finally said, shaking off his shock. “We need to figure out how we’re going to capture Caesar. Do we have any ideas?”

“We need to learn more about him first.” Law said, resting her chin in her hand. “And we need somewhere to keep him.”

The room was silent before Zoro spoke up. “Luffy,” the rubber woman turned to look at her Underboss. “Why don’t we use the cellar?”

Nami’s eyes lit up when he understood what Zoro was getting at. “That’s actually not a bad idea.” Looking over at the confused siblings, he elaborated. “There’s an empty cellar underneath the basement of this Mansion that’d be a good place to keep Caesar. It’s empty and secluded, so it’d be really hard for anyone to find him.”

“We can have Franki make the room itself more secure and add a steel door with locks so he can’t escape.” Zoro added. “Make it into a jail cell.”

“It’ll need to be made out of Sea Prism Stone.” Law said, and the trio looked at her with eyebrows raised. “Caesar is a Devil Fruit user.”

“He is?” Luffy questioned. “What kind?”

“He has the Logia-type Gas-Gas Fruit.” Law answered, leaning back. “So when we go after him, only Haki-users can do so. We’ll also need Sea Prism Stone handcuffs.”

“Okay.” Luffy nodded, scratching her chin. “Brooke probably knows somewhere to get those, as well as where to buy a whole lot of Sea Prism Stone Franki can use to build a secure cell.”

“With that out of the way, all we’ll need to do is capture Caesar.” Zoro said, tapping her fingers over Shusui’s hilt.

“Like I said, we need to learn more about Caesar.” Law said. “Like his habits, his schedule, when he’ll be alone and such.”

“We also need to figure out where the factory making SMILE is.” Nami added. “It wouldn’t hurt to have a clue to its location.”

“Which means someone will need to venture into Dressrosa.” Law said, rubbing her face, exchanging a tired look with Lami. She was just about to offer that her Family take that job when Luffy spoke up.

“Usopp and her gang can handle that.” Luffy said, her sharp gaze on Law, where she could see the tiniest bit of worry in her slate gray eyes, and then Lami, where fear was painted in his light gray ones. “I mean, you don’t want to go there, right? Neither of you do.”

Luffy managed to, once again, surprise everyone in the room.

“What…” Law trailed off, not even sure how to word her question, while Lami just stared at her with his jaw dropped.

“I don’t know how, but you two have some connection with Mingo and his Family.” Luffy said matter-of-factly, missing everyone’s shocked faces. “It’s alright if you don’t want to tell us about it, but it’d probably be best to keep you guys _out_ of Dressrosa.”

Both Zoro and Nami gazed down at their Don, lips tilted up in amusement. Luffy always managed to surprise people with how perceptive and intuitive she _truly_ was, given that she usually hid behind a façade of naiveté and ignorance. The others in the Family were usually fooled by it too, though Sanji and Robin were a bit more aware of it than the rest of them. Zoro and Nami, however, knew very well about the intelligence and cunning that Luffy hid from everyone else, though chose not to comment on it. When Luffy totally dropped her façade, she could be…rather scary and intense, to be honest. It wasn’t something the duo liked to witness, instead liking the fun-loving, easygoing personality the rubber woman usually went with.

Law honestly didn’t know what to say to that. _How the hell did Straw Hat-ya figure that out? No one but my Family knows about the connection Lami and I have with that overgrown bird._

 _How does Don Straw Hat know about Doflamingo? There’s no way anyone could make that connection since we cut ties with that man_ , Lami thought to himself while rubbing his arms.

“Plus,” Luffy went on like she didn’t manage to render everyone speechless in surprise, “Usopp’s Pirates are discreet. They don’t get discovered unless they want it that way. They’ll be perfect to poke around Dressrosa.”

“Usopp’s… _Pirates?”_ Lami asked, latching onto to something normal, trying to get his mind _off_ of Doflamingo.

“Don’t ask.” Nami muttered, shaking his head.

“So, Traffy,” the older Don looked over at Luffy. “That leaves you with the surveillance on Caesar.”

Law just nodded, leaning back in her chair as if exhausted. “Shachi- _ya_ and her gang will handle it.”

Luffy was about to say something else when she suddenly bolted upright, something brushing against her Haki, the other Haki-users—Zoro, Law, Lami—responding in kind.

“What?” Nami asked, looking at the four of them. “What’s wrong?”

“I…don’t know.” Luffy said, looking around as if expecting something to jump out. “I just—”

_WOOSH! BAM!_

A sound that sounded suspiciously like an explosion echoed through the Mansion, coming from the direction of the foyer, followed by the loud _BANG_ of the front doors smashing against a wall, _again_. The two Dons jolted out of their chairs in surprise.

“What the _hell_ was that?” Lami shouted, looking around. “Is someone attacking?”

“Probably not.” Luffy said, distracted, as she “tasted” the Haki this new person brought with them. After a few seconds, she recognized it, as did Zoro. She groaned. _“Crap.”_

“What?” Law and Lami asked at the same time, looking at the young Don.

“I…think I know who’s here.” Luffy said, a little sheepish.

“Who?!”

 _“Wait, stop! You can’t go in there!”_ That was Sanji’s voice. It sounded like it wasn’t too far from the office. _“She’s busy! Stop!”_ That sounded closer. _“Ace!”_

 _Ace?_ the two siblings thought, but before they could question Luffy, another explosion sounded, but this time, it was right in front of them.

Everyone froze for a second as they watched the twin doors fly into the room, one heading in Law’s direction while the other flew toward Luffy. Law didn’t even move, and when the door was nearly on top of her, Lami moved swiftly, grabbing the hilts of his wakizashi and unsheathing them quickly before slicing in a cross-shape, bisecting the wood effortlessly. Luffy, likewise, didn’t move a muscle, and when the door was almost on her, Zoro already had Shusui out of his scabbard and sliced right down the center, sending the door flying off into two pieces on either side of the desk.

Once the dust and debris settled, everyone was able to clearly see the young woman, maybe two or three years older than Luffy, standing in the doorway. She had waist-length, wavy ebony black hair with parted bangs pushed back from her face, amber brown eyes, light tan skin, and a slender, well-endowed, hourglass figure; splashed across her cheekbones were a sprinkling of freckles and tattooed down her left bicep, in black, were the letters " **ANN** ". She’s wearing a black sleeveless cropped top, showing off her toned stomach, black skinny jeans tucked into black high-heeled combat boots, an eyelet-studded orange belt, a red/white-striped bracelet and dark red wristwatch around her left wrist, and a red large-beaded necklace hanging around her neck; dangling over her left hip was a green scabbard containing a dagger and plopped on top of her head was an orange cowboy hat with two blue smileys, one frowning and one smiling, a string of red beads sitting above the rim, and two long orange side straps hung down the sides and met at a large flame-shaped medallion.

Law and Lami’s eyes widened when they finally placed the name and the appearance of the woman standing in the doorway, and when both turned to ask Luffy how the hell she knew this person, she pounced.

Moving faster than the eye could follow, the ebony-haired woman flew right past the other two in a whirlwind of _flames_ , straight over the desk, and ended up tackling Luffy right to the ground; Luffy didn’t have time to do anything but yelp as she was forced down onto the floor with a heavy weight on top of her.

“Luffy!” the woman called out happily, wrapping her arms around Luffy’s waist in a bear hug.

Now, usually, Luffy was always excited to see her older sister—since she wasn’t able to do so very often—but Ace picked the worst possible time to come visit. Squirming under her sister’s grip, she yelled, “Ace! Leggo! I don’t have time for this!”

Ace, of course, ignored her younger sister as she tightened her arms even more.

Zoro and Nami, used to this action every time the elder D. sister came to visit, merely moved out of the way so they weren’t bowled over in the resulting wrestling match that was about to take place. Law and Lami, however, were not used to this action, so they were staring, perplexed, at the squirming mass on the floor.

“Uhhh…” Lami finally got out, looking at the two other Straw Hats. “Shouldn’t you do something?”

“Nah, it’s like this every time Ace comes to visit.” Nami said dismissively.

The other two blinked before Law spoke up. “So, that _is_ Portgas D. Ace, correct? Underboss of the 2nd Division of the Whitebeard Family?”

Zoro and Nami just nodded in confirmation.

“Why is she _here?”_ Lami asked, eyes still on the two raven-haired women. “What’s her connection to Don Straw Hat?”

“She’s Luffy’s older sister.” Zoro answered, stepping back when a kick came too close to her shin.

**. . .**

_“What?!”_ they both shouted.

“But—” Law started but was cut off.

“Not biological, of course.” Nami said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Luffy’s grandfather adopted Ace when she was a baby and raised her alongside Luffy as her stepsister.” Both Nami and Zoro knew the actual truth of Ace’s birth, being the only two of the Straw Hats who did, and were sworn to secrecy at that moment. Luffy could have a big mouth at the worst moments.

“And this?” Law asked, gesturing to the pile of Luffy and Ace.

“Ace is a _very_ overprotective sister.” Nami said with an exasperated look.

“She also has a sister complex the size of the Six Districts combined, plus about three or four more.” Zoro added, shaking her head.

That got the two questioning looks.

Nami sighed. “Even though she has to, being part of the Whitebeard Family, Ace hates to let Luffy out of her sight for too long.” He paused. “It’s been about five months since she last visited, her longest time yet. I’m honestly not surprised by this reaction.”

“Off, off, OFF!” Luffy shouted, still struggling under her sister.

Ace gleefully ignored her.

Finally, Luffy got her feet underneath Ace, and, after a quick scan to make sure no one was in the way, Luffy suddenly kicked her legs out, launching Ace off of her and sending her flying into the opposite wall with a loud _CRASH_.

“Finally!” Luffy groaned out, accepting Zoro’s hand to pull herself up.

“You okay?” Nami asked, smirking slightly in amusement.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Scowling over in Ace’s direction, Luffy added loudly, “No thanks to Ace!”

She got a grumble in response.

Zoro frowned as she looked at the now-doorless doorway. “Franki is not gonna be happy.” She glanced back at Luffy. “What is it with your family and destroying our doors?”

“Huh?” That came from Ace, who was pulling herself out of the caved-in wall.

“Gramps was here a little bit ago.” Luffy explained, rubbing her head at the phantom pain.

“Fist of Love?” Ace guessed when she saw her sister rub her head.

Luffy let out a huff. “What else? It _still_ hurts, even after all these years.”

Ace snorted before she squinted her eyes in thought. “I wonder why he’s never come to visit me?”

“He said that Whitebeard probably wouldn’t like it.” Luffy said, plopping back down in her leather chair. “Count yourself lucky.”

Ace chuckled. “I do.” Then she looked over at Law and Lami, like she was just noticing them. “When did you get here?”

The siblings almost fell to the floor in surprise.

“They were here before you arrived, Ace.” Nami answered, rolling his eyes.

“Really?” Ace asked.

“Yeah.” Luffy said, glancing at her sister. “We _were_ in the middle of a meeting, but you interrupted that when you blasted my doors down.” Motioning to the two, Luffy said, “This is Trafalgar D. Water Law, Don of the Heart Family, and Trafalgar D. Water Lami, her Underboss and younger brother.” Luffy paused. “Traffy, Lami, this is my older sister, Ace.”

Ace tilted her head in consideration as she heard the names. “So it is true.”

“Huh?” was the general question.

Leaning against the desk, Ace elaborated. “Rumor is that the Dons of the Straw Hat Family,” she pointed at Luffy, “and the Heart Family,” she pointed at Law, “have made an alliance.” Ace paused, looking between the two. “So I guess the rumors were right.”

Luffy shrugged, unperturbed. “We’ve made an alliance.”

“Why?” Ace asked, looking at her sister. “Is something wrong?”

Looking over at the other Don, she paused before glancing back at Ace. “We really need to finish up things here.”

Nami stepped in. “Yes, so why don’t you go to the kitchen and ask Sanji to fix you something?” He smiled. “Tell her I sent you.”

Knowing she wouldn’t be able to get anything out of her sister right now, Ace nodded before pushing herself off of the desk, heading to the door. She _was_ a bit hungry and Sanji did cook some of the best food she’d ever tasted. When she reached the doorless doorway, however, she paused and turned around, moving her gaze to the older Don.

“Just so you know,” Ace said lightly, “if you do something that hurts my little sister,” she let flames dance threateningly on the tips of her fingers, casting her face in an ominous glow, “there'll be _no_ body left for anyone to find. Just remember that.” And with that said, she casually left the room.

Law and Lami were kind of scared shocked at that before they turned to look at the three Straw Hats.

Nami just shrugged. “I told you she was overprotective.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, was that any good? When I was writing this, it just occurred to me that (in the actual Anime) Law is older than Ace. Robin and Franky too. Kinda weird to think about. Oh, and some of the dialogue came from the Anime, so I wanted to say that I do not own any of it. How Law explained things made sense to me, so I went with it. Also, Ace's genderbent name (for this fic) is Ann (which is why her tattoo says ANN), but she more commonly goes by Ace (as a nickname). My reasoning is, let's say Rouge, when she found she had a girl, told Garp that her name was Ann, but she also mentioned that if it were to be a boy, Roger wanted the name to be Ace, so Garp used the name as a nickname for her.


	7. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! I got the chapter that I've been wanting to write forever down. I've been wanting to do this scene ever since I first started this fic originally. I have no idea why it took so long to write down, but, meh, I did it. I'm proud of myself for that. Anyway, this chapter will be another filler, featuring the FBI again, and introducing Luffy and Zoro to Smoker and Tashigi. I hope you like it, and the next chapter will continue with the main storyline. Oh, and quick note, I didn't genderbend Smoker and Tashigi. I didn't really feel like doing it. *shrug*
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of the characters mentioned.
> 
> This is AU. Basically, all that remains are their names, faces, and a few personality traits, but other than that, the characters in this story are completely OOC.

**Two Weeks Later…**

Robin, flipping through the pages of his new book, heard the door to his shop open and close, indicating someone had entered, so he looked up, the greeting he had on his tongue dying in surprise at who he saw standing in front of him. They were bound to make their way here eventually, but he never thought it’d be so soon.

“Hello.” Robin finally said, shaking off the surprise, greeting the two figures in front of him: a man and woman.

The man had short, slicked back white hair with the sides cut short, copper brown eyes, light tan skin, and a brawny, athletic build; extending from his forehead to his right eye before tapering off to the side of his face was a stitched scar and dangling out of his mouth were two lit cigars. He was wearing a large, thick white and blue specialist jacket with greenish fur lining the collar and many cigars strapped to it left open over a white polo shirt, black dress pants tucked into military-issue brown leather boots, and a brown belt; worn on his hands were brown leather gloves and strapped to the back of his jacket was a long, silver jitte.

The young lady—definitely younger than her male companion—had hip-length, straight dark navy blue hair, worn pinned up by a red clip, with two shoulder-length strands framing her face and a few strands covering her forehead, dark brown eyes covered by rectangular red spectacles, light tan skin, and a slender, well-endowed, hourglass figure. She was dressed in a pink trench coat with a furred collar left open over a purple, light pink-pinstriped oxford blouse with the top two buttons left undone, black dress pants, a black belt, and dark pink thick-heeled ankle boots. Robin then immediately took notice of the weapon the woman had on her—a katana sheathed in a rather elaborate-looking scabbard colored lime green and white.

The one thing Robin could not overlook, however, were the shiny gold badges both individuals had clipped to their belts.

“What do I owe the pleasure of the FBI visiting my humble store?” Robin said, closing his book and giving them his entire attention.

The white-haired man—S.A.C. Dulcie Smoker, from the information Usopp had gathered—scoffed while the blue-haired woman—A.S.A.C. Rial Tashigi—adjusted her glasses before the both of them walked over to the counter that Robin was situated behind.

Smoker reached into his jacket, Robin reflexively tensing for a brief moment, and pulled out a sealed white envelope. “I’d like you to give this to your boss.”

Robin watched as the envelope was placed down on the counter beside his book before he glanced back up at the Agents, fake confusion pulling his features. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean. I’m the only one who works here.”

“Don’t play stupid, Nico Robin, it doesn’t suit you,” was Smoker’s gruff reply before putting a single finger on the envelope and pushing it forward. “Give this to your boss.”

Robin blinked a little, head tilted to the side, mock-confusion still on his face. “I really have no idea what you mean by boss. I own and run this store myself.”

A low growl came from the other man before he just sighed out. “Fine, if that’s how you want to play it.” And then, after giving him another glare, he merely turned and walked out of the store, leaving behind a plume of smoke in his wake.

Robin looked over at the woman, who had yet to say anything, eyebrow raised in question; Tashigi just nodded slightly, gave the envelope still laying on the countertop a meaningful look, and then followed Smoker out of the shop. Robin waited a few moments before getting up and walking over to the front door, locking it and turning the sign to “Closed”, before going back to the counter and grabbing the envelope.

“How strange.” Robin murmured to himself, studying the item as he reached into his pocket and retrieved the key.

Luckily, Luffy—as well as Zoro and Nami—was down at the Thousand Sunny, so delivering the envelope to his “boss” wouldn’t take too long. He walked towards the back of the store, unlocked the secret entrance, and made his way down.

* * *

It didn’t take too long to locate the three members of the Family, as they were seated at the bar, talking with Vi and listening, and clapping, as Brooke and a few of her gang members played music to entertain the lunch crowd that had showed up.

“Robin!” Luffy called out happily when she spotted the black-haired man walking towards them. “Hey! What are you doing down here?” It was uncommon for Robin to come down this early in the day.

“Hello.” Robin greeted with a small smile as he finally reached them.

“Is something wrong?” Zoro asked, head tilted in question as she studied the man.

Robin sighed, taking a seat next to Nami, before finally telling the three of them about what had happened upstairs.

The others were silent for several minutes in shock as they digested what Robin just told them.

“He told you to give this to Luffy?” Nami finally asked incredulously, still not believing it.

“He was very insistent about it.” Robin said, handing over the envelope to Luffy, who took it with a curious look on her face.

“He didn’t say anything else?” Zoro asked, watching as Luffy tore open the envelope and took out a card, eyes flickering back and forth as she read what was on it.

Robin shook his head. “He told me to give this to “my boss” and when I denied having any boss, he got…” He trailed off in thought, trying to find a word that summed up how unhappy the Agent had been.

“Mad?” Nami offered.

Robin nodded. “Yes, he was not pleased by my denial.” He shrugged his shoulders. “He then told me to give this to Luffy once more before leaving. That was it.”

“Well, Luffy, what does it say?” Zoro asked when she saw Luffy put down the card in front of her.

“He wants to meet with me, to talk.” Luffy said, leaning back against the bar top and scratching the back of her neck.

“To _talk?”_ Nami asked, disbelief heavy in his voice. “Seriously?”

Luffy nodded.

“And where does he want to have this “talk” with you?” Nami asked, arms crossed over his chest.

“A small café near FBI Headquarters.” Luffy answered, rocking back and forth. “I’ve been there before, with Gramps. He took me once when I was really little, when he was looking after me before he gave me to Dadan.” She rubbed her chin. “I think the food was good.”

“A FBI Agent wants to meet with you, an infamous Mob Don, at a café that’s _next_ to FBI Headquarters?!” Nami almost shouted, tone tinged with disbelief, and nearly fell out of his seat when Luffy merely nodded. “Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that?! It’s obviously some sort of trap!”

“Nami,” Zoro called, getting the man’s attention. “It doesn’t matter if it _is_ a trap, Luffy has to show up.”

“Why the hell should she?!” Nami shouted, arms waving around.

“It’s also a test.” Robin answered this time. “He wants to see how brave Luffy actually is, if she’ll actually show up at a place known to be frequented by Agents and located _right next_ to Headquarters.”

“It won’t look good if Luffy doesn’t go.” Zoro said, taking a sip from her beer glass. “It’ll make her seem weak.”

Nami opened his mouth, about to protest again, before shutting it, sighing out in resignation. He knew Zoro was right, but he didn’t have to _like_ it.

“You’ll go with her?” Nami asked instead, looking at the Underboss.

Zoro snorted before nodding. “Of course.” She then looked over at Luffy, who was finishing up the lunch Vi had brought out. “Luffy?”

“Yeah?” Luffy said, mouth full with food, before swallowing and asking, “What is it?”

“When is this meeting supposed to take place?” Zoro asked.

Luffy grabbed the card again and looked it over. “Three days from now, at noon.”

“When it’ll be the busiest.” Robin said, nodding slowly. “He really wants to see how much courage Luffy has.”

Zoro let out a rough chuckle. “He really has no idea who he’s dealing with, then.”

“That seems to be the truth for most people dealing with Luffy.” Robin said, a small smile present as he watched Luffy then try to steal food from Zoro’s plate and Zoro smacking the Don repeatedly in protest.

_She’s truly one-of-a-kind._

* * *

**Three Days Later…**

“I _still_ don’t like this.” Nami said from the driver’s seat of one of their Chevrolets, looking in the rearview mirror at both Luffy and Zoro.

It had been unanimously decided that Nami would drive the duo into the New World District, to drop them off at the café, since they couldn’t be trusted to make it there by themselves; Zoro had absolutely no sense of direction—able to get lost even in a straight line—while Luffy got distracted rather easily and ended up in a place completely opposite of where she was supposed to be.

“So you’ve said, twenty million times already.” Zoro said with an exasperated eye-roll; she was wearing a white oxford blouse, the top few buttons left undone and sleeves rolled up to her elbows, underneath a russet brown waistcoat, black dress pants, a maroon belt, and brown stilettos; tied around her left bicep, like usual, was her black bandana and she had her three katanas bundled over her right hip, attached to the belt.

“Shishishi.” Luffy laughed, leaning up so her head was in between the two front seats. “Don’t worry about it, Nami. We’ll be fine.” Luffy was dressed in an iris purple oxford blouse with ruffled cuffs and the top few buttons left undone, a black mid-thigh suit skirt with black suspenders attached, black pumps, and, of course, her straw hat was plopped on top of her head.

“They just want to scope us out.” Zoro said, leaning back in the seat and pulling Luffy back as well. “They’re not stupid enough to pull something on us.”

Nami huffed but stayed quiet. He really didn’t like this, as he told the two over the past three days repeatedly, but he also knew this was necessary. Plus, he knew Zoro would never let anything happen to Luffy, not while she was around to stop it.

“Fine.” Nami said as he pulled up at a corner just before the café—where he was dropping the two off, as well as where he’d be picking them up. “If you two aren’t back here in _one_ hour, I’m calling Sanji and the others.”

Zoro resisted rolling her eye. “We got it.”

“Set your alarm!” Nami snapped, turning to look at Zoro.

“Fine, whatever. Just unlock the damn doors.” She snapped back.

Luffy just laughed again before reaching up and squeezing Nami’s shoulder, dispelling the tension somewhat. “Stop worrying. We’ll see ya later!” And she opened the door and hopped out, stretching her arms up.

“Zoro…” Nami called out once more and the green-haired woman glanced over at him before nodding in understanding and following Luffy out.

“Woo!” Luffy cheered, walking down the sidewalk towards the café. “I’m so hungry! I hope the food’s as good as I remember.”

Zoro now rolled her eye and slapped Luffy upside her head. “That isn’t the point, you idiot. Don’t let your guard down either. We’re walking right into the lion’s den.”

Luffy shrugged, unperturbed. “First Nami and now you. Stop worrying so much! If Smokey wanted to do anything to us, he’d have done it already. We’ll be fine.”

Zoro looked over a Luffy, eyebrow raised, before chuckling in resignation. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess Nami’s nagging got to me for a minute.” She rested her arm on her katanas, swerving around people as they came from the other direction.

“Shishishi.” Luffy laughed, completely unaware of the stares her and her Underboss were now receiving as they drew closer to the café…and the FBI Headquarters as a result.

Zoro made sure to keep a watchful eye out, arm poised over her katanas as she heard the people—Agents, she’s pretty sure—saying their names and mentioning their Family.

“We’re here!” Luffy exclaimed, looking over at Zoro. “You ready?”

Zoro sighed, running a hand through her long hair, before nodding. “As I’ll ever be.”

Luffy then pushed the pair of doors open—with a slight flourish—before stepping in, her Underboss right behind her, and glancing around, trying to find the Agent who invited her here.

The Don was so focused on looking around that she didn’t even realize she, and Zoro, were now the center of attention as the whole café went silent. Eyes darted from the ravenette’s well-known straw hat to the burn scar peeking out from her top and then over at the other woman, taking in her green hair, three earrings, scars, and, finally, the three katanas resting over her hip. There was no doubt in any of the Agents’ minds as to who these two women were. The question _was_ , though, why were the top two executives of the Straw Hat Family _here?_

Zoro’s hand stayed on Shusui’s hilt, ready to draw him if any of these Agents dared to make a move on her or her Don. Luffy, meanwhile, was still searching around before she finally spotted the face of the man Usopp showed to her in a picture when telling the Family about the two Agents Koby had warned them about.

“Zoro! Found them!” Luffy called out, startling everyone in the room as the young Don grabbed her Underboss’s arm and led her to the back of the café.

“Stop yanking me, Luffy!” Zoro snapped, though could really do little as Luffy continued to drag her along.

When they finally reached the desired table, Luffy dropped Zoro’s arm before smiling widely at the two occupants sitting at it.

The man—dressed as he was when he met with Robin, minus the jacket, which was draped over the back of his chair—looked up at the young woman, eyebrow raised. “I’m impressed, Straw Hat. I didn’t think you’d actually show up.” He blew out a stream of smoke. “Though, honestly, I really shouldn’t be so surprised.”

Luffy tilted her head to the side, curious, before shrugging. “You asked me to be here, so here I am.”

“And you brought your Underboss with you, I see.” Smoker commented, glancing over at the green-haired woman, noting absentmindedly the impressively deadly aura she was giving off; it was not a feeling for the weak of heart.

Tashigi—dressed the same as before, though her coat was also draped over the back of her chair—had her eyes glued to the Underboss’s katanas. She _had_ been right, that had been a hilt of a katana in her Wanted picture. But something wasn’t quite right, there was something almost…ominous coming from one of the katanas, but she couldn’t tell which one.  

“I wasn’t about to let her go alone.” Zoro answered, hand tightening on Shusui’s hilt, but otherwise stayed calm.

Smoker smirked before gesturing to the seats across from himself and Tashigi. “Sit down and join us, Straw Hat, Roronoa.”

Luffy looked over at Zoro, nodding, before pulling out the chair situated across from Smoker and sitting down, Zoro doing the same in the other one.

Things were quiet for a few minutes as both parties studied each other, before Smoker leaned back and said, “Would you like anything to eat? Lunch is on me, of course.”

Luffy’s eyes lit up like stars while Zoro snorted. That was a dangerous thing to say to the young Don.

Smoker waved over a waitress before motioning at the two women, telling them to go ahead.

Luffy’s eyes were roving over the menu and just when she was about to say one of everything, Zoro put a hand over the menu and pushed it down on the table, out of the ravenette’s hands. Luffy looked up at her Underboss, confused.

“Five things, Luffy,” was all Zoro said.

Luffy’s mouth dropped open. “What?! Only five?! But—”

“Five.”

“But—”

_“Five.”_

Luffy flopped back in her chair with a huff and pout before nodding. _“Fine!”_ She grabbed the menu again, looking over it quickly, before pointing to five things that looked good. “I’ll have one of each of those.”

The waitress blinked in shock at that, looking at the young woman, before wisely saying nothing and writing down the order. She then looked over at Zoro, who declined any food, and handed her the menus. The waitress nodded and walked away.

Zoro looked over at Luffy, exasperated by the woman’s endless appetite, even when they’re in the “enemy’s territory”. Zoro wouldn’t put it past the feds to try and poison their food, to get rid of them that way, which was why she wasn’t going to touch _anything_ given to her here. Luffy, on the other hand, was perfectly fine, even if they _did_ poison her food, given Luffy’s high resistance to most types of deadly poisons—due to powerful antitoxins in her bloodstream. Luffy was safe, which was all Zoro cared about at that point; she still didn’t feel completely comfortable being here, even though no one had made a move against them, but what grated the most on her nerves was the woman Agent staring at her katanas…doing _nothing_ but staring.

Zoro finally got fed up and snapped out, “What are you staring at?!”

The Agent jumped some but moved her eyes from the katanas up to the other woman’s eye before saying, “Your katanas.”

Zoro raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, what about them?” She then smirked, eye trailing down to stare at the other’s katana leaning against the chair. “You’ve got one too, so it’s not like you’ve never seen one.”

Tashigi, ignoring the woman’s snide tone, moved her eyes back to the katanas, trying to figure out where that weird _feeling_ was coming from. “One of them feels…off, not right.”

Zoro snorted, relaxing slightly. “Was that all? Damn, you really don’t know katanas at all, do you?”

Tashigi bristled at the insult, eyes narrowing behind her red spectacles. She damn well knew katanas! She’d grown up doing research on her favorite blades and loved learning all she could about them. How dare this… _criminal_ insinuate she was an idiot! It was outrageous.

Zoro then moved her hand from her black katana to Kitetsu III, easily ignoring the cry for carnage and bloodshed that always came from this blade, and looked up at the bluenette. “My Kitetsu is a cursed blade, sweetheart.”

Tashigi barely stopped her jaw from dropping, eyes moving to the reddish-brown katana the other woman was gripping. “A _Kitetsu?!_ You own a _Kitetsu_ blade?”

“Ah, so it seems you _do_ know your blades.” Zoro snarked, a smirk on her face.

Tashigi couldn’t wrap her head around it. What kind of moron would _willingly_ choose to wield one of those cursed blades? The Kitetsu blades were some of the more notorious cursed blades, well-known for bringing death and disaster to whoever owned them; smart swords-people stayed _far_ away from those. They were also known for choosing their own wielder, seeing as it took a strong spirit to wield them, to control and overcome the blade’s constant need for blood and massacre. Just how strong _was_ this woman who could not only control a cursed one, but two other blades as well?

Speaking of those other two katanas…now that she actually _looked_ at them, they seemed almost familiar to her. Had she seen them somewhere before? It was tickling the back of her mind, like a word at the tip of her tongue that she couldn’t remember.

“What now?” Zoro asked in exasperation, seeing the Agent’s intense gaze _still_ on the katanas, though her eyes reflected confusion now.

“Those other two katanas…what are their names?” Tashigi finally asked, since it was now driving her insane.

Zoro glanced down at her other two katanas, thinking it over, before she let her hand land on the white one. “Wadō Ichimonji.” Then her hand moved to the black one. “Shusui.”

Tashigi, this time, _did_ let her jaw drop in surprise. “No way.” Those two blades…there was no way.

A slow smirk spread across Zoro’s face before repeating, “I see you _do_ know your blades, after all.”

“How the _hell_ do you have _two_ of the twenty-one O Wazamono-grade katanas?!” Tashigi all but shrieked, gaining the attention of quite a few people around the café.

“Calm down, Tashigi.” Smoker grunted out, smacking the girl on the back of the head. “You’re too loud.”

“Sorry, Smoker- _san_.” Tashigi said apologetically before looking back at the green-haired Underboss. “How?”

Zoro tilted her head to the side, fingers running over both hilts in memory, before saying, “None of your damn business.”

Smoker clamped a hand down on Tashigi’s shoulder before the other Agent could launch herself at the smirking swordswoman. “Calm. Down.”

Tashigi shrugged off his touch but simmered down, though continued to glare at the other woman. This…this was an outrage, a criminal as notorious as the Straw Hats’ Underboss owning two such legendary katanas was just _wrong_. Her hands clenched tightly in her lap, but after another warning look from Smoker, she stayed quiet.

The food then arrived, being carried by three different servers, before being placed in front of the young ravenette. Her smile widened in glee before she immediately dug in, tearing into the plates in a way that reminded most of the Agents who witnessed it as an animal digging into their food. Zoro, on the other hand, leaned back in her seat, already used to Luffy’s eating habits by now.

In less than ten minutes, Luffy had torn through all five meals placed in front of her and was leaning back in her chair, satisfied for now. “That was so yummy!” _Though Sanji’s cooking is way better._

Smoker was stunned. Where the hell did that girl _put_ all that food? Tashigi was in the same stunned state, momentarily stopping her glaring at Zoro to stare at Luffy in disbelief.

“So,” Luffy said, pushing the plates back, “was there anything in particular you wanted to talk with me about or did you just want to see if I’d show up?”

Smoker’s eyes narrowed at the cheeky tone before saying, “I just wanted to see you in person.” He crossed his large arms. “To see just _who_ Don Straw Hat _is_.”

He wanted to see what kind of person inspired the loyalty he found when he, Tashigi and the rest of his Agents had interviewed the varying businesses and homes located in Straw Hat’s territories over the prior weeks. It puzzled him when none of the owners or residents would say a bad word about Straw Hat or any of her Family. Some people even told him to leave them alone, that they were good people. That was when he decided he _needed_ to meet the Don in person, to try and figure out why these normal people seemed to _like_ being considered her territory, liking the connection to the Straw Hat Family.

“Who I am?” Luffy questioned, head tilted to one side in confusion.

Zoro, though, she understood. This wasn’t the first time this had happened, that Luffy had defied expectations and confounded the people around her. It even happened to _her_ when she first met the young Luffy; over time, Zoro found it to be one of Luffy’s little quirks that make her, well, _Luffy_.

“Don’t worry about it, Luffy.” Zoro finally said, chuckling some.

The Don looked over at Zoro, eyebrows raised. “Neh, Zoro, tell me!”

Zoro just shook her head. “Later.” She then looked over at Smoker, smirk in place. “It doesn’t get easier, you know.” Smoker looked at her in question. “She’s not easily understood.”

Luffy let out a _humph_ and crossed her arms. “Stop talking like I’m not here, Zoro!”

Zoro felt something buzz against her leg, so, ignoring Luffy, she pulled out her smartphone—encased in a forest green case—and saw it was the alarm Nami had told her to set. Seemed their time was up, and if they didn’t want Nami, and company, breaking down the doors, they needed to leave.

Zoro tapped Luffy on the arm before motioning at her phone. “Time to go, Luffy.”

Luffy hummed out before nodding. “Looks like it.” She pushed her chair back, standing up, before looking at the two Agents. “It was nice to meet you, Smokey, Tashigi!” Then she paused, remembering the manners Ace had beaten into her, before bowing slightly. “And thanks for the meal!”

Zoro had already started moving away from the table. “Come on, Luffy. I don’t want Nami yelling at us if we’re late.”

“Shishishi.” Luffy waved at the Agents before skipping ahead to catch up with Zoro, who was still on guard, watching everyone as Luffy went on ahead. “Let’s go, slowpoke. You were the one in such a rush.”

Zoro didn’t like exposing her back to the roomful of Agents, but it didn’t seem she had a choice as Luffy was already at the door and waving at her eagerly. Zoro finally huffed out before walking the last few steps over to Luffy quickly and then the two of them were finally out of the café, back on the sidewalk.

“See?” Luffy said, crossing her arms behind her head. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“Says you.” Zoro grumbled, letting her arm now just rest on the katanas instead of gripping one of them. “That damn Agent would have sooner rip my katanas away from me than let me walk out of there.”

“Nah.” Luffy easily waved off as they made their way to the corner where they were meeting Nami. “You wouldn’t let anyone separate you from them. Plus, your cursed one wouldn’t be too happy, right?”

Zoro snorted, feeling the last of her stress melt away—leave it to Luffy. “Yeah, you’re right.” She didn’t know _how_ , but somehow Luffy understood her katanas and how she viewed them and felt about them. It was another thing that made her _Luffy_.

_Honk Honk_

They both looked up when they saw the familiar Chevrolet pull up to the corner, almost running over a few Agents trying to cross the street; the women both held in laughs at that. They walked over to it and Zoro opened the back door, ushering Luffy in before getting in herself.

“So, how was it?” Nami asked immediately, locking the car doors before pulling away from the curb, wanting to put some distance between them and the FBI.

“Everything went fine, just like I said.” Luffy said, smiling widely at the man. “I even got food!”

Nami breathed out a calming breath, resisting the urge to strange his Don. “Zoro?” He looked at the Underboss in question.

“Fine.” Zoro answered, leaning back in the seat, eye closed. “He just wanted to test Luffy’s courage, as well as actually _meet_ Luffy.”

“What?” Nami questioned, slowing down for a red light. “What do you mean by that?”

“Luffy did what Luffy does best,” Zoro’s eye opened slightly as she gave the man a wicked grin. “She defied the norm.” Her eye slid shut again. “She confused the hell out of the Agents.”

Nami chuckled, finally relaxing; he would _never_ admit it, but he was worried about those two once they had left the car. “Of course she did.”

“You’re doing it again, Zoro!” Luffy complained, pouting. “You’re talking like I’m not here.”

Nami hid another chuckle before asking the ravenette, “How was the food?”

And with that question, Luffy immediately forgot why she was so upset—just as Nami planned—as she spent the rest of the ride back to Fusha Town talking about the food she ate and what she was hoping Sanji would be cooking for dinner while Zoro fell into a slight doze and Nami listened to Luffy’s prattling.

Yeah, there was really nothing to worry about, was there?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, how was it? As usual, I'm always up for suggestions and such. Until next time...
> 
> Smoker's Weapon -  
> \- a Jitte: a smooth, silver iron boshin (main shaft) and kagi (hook/guard) with a Sea Prism Stone sentan (tip/point), a bandage-wrapped tsuka (handle), and a round kan (ring/loop @ pommel)
> 
> Tashigi's Weapon -  
> \- Shigure (Rain in Late Autumn): a katana; a moderately curved, slender, single-edged black blade with a silver edge; a forest green tsuka-ito (hilt-wrapping) with white samegawa (ray skin wrap), a golden rounded four-petaled tsuba (hand-guard), and a golden kashira (pommel); the saya (scabbard) is elaborate, with the first half being lime green and bumpy designed, the second half is white and smooth, and there are gold circular designs embedded along the entire length


End file.
